The report, Outbound travel: a catalyst for jobs, growth and wellbeing, said the outbound industry could be worth £62 billion a year to the UK economy and bring an additional 146,000 direct and supply chain jobs in the next five years.
Published on Wednesday (11 June) to coincide with the government’s Spending Review and Abta’s Travel Matters conference in London, the report said: “As the government focuses on the delivery of growth, the role of outbound as a catalyst for other parts of tourism must be recognised.”
The research by York Aviation says that without outbound travel, many regional airports would struggle to survive. It estimates East Midlands airport’s passenger traffic is 90% outbound leisure, with Manchester and Birmingham at 78% and Bristol and Exeter 75%.
Airports like these, Abta said, are dependent on outbound passengers to support air routes for overseas inbound visitors. It added this makes clear “the notion of reducing outbound tourism to benefit the UK visitor economy is inaccurate”.
However, Abta warned turning growth and regional potential into reality required the right tax and policy framework and urged the government to harness opportunities presented by travel. Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “With the Spending Review, we’re urging the government to capitalise on the growth potential presented by outbound travel.”
Abta praised “positive progress” on decisions around airport expansion, airspace modernisation and a domestic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry but stressed the need to speed policy decisions, “avoiding the mistakes of past governments, where too often plans have ended up in the long grass”.
In the report, Abta set out three areas of policy it believes must change. It urged investment in SAF, particularly to support the price to encourage refinery building, plus investment in shoreside power at UK ports.
It also called for business rates reform and support for educational and vocational routes into the industry, as well as removal of some Brexit barriers, including the reinstatement of the right to work abroad for younger UK citizens.
