During a wide-ranging address on the opening morning of the 2023 Advantage conference in Benidorm, Lo Bue-Said said that travel’s resilience during the pandemic and the positive trading environment it has taken advantage of over the past year has perversely proved a weakness in terms of it being able to make a case for more support from Westminster when times are tough.
Lo Bue-Said stressed that with a general election due by January 2025 at the latest, there was a risk of travel falling foul of government making decisions that play well at the ballot box rather than acting in the best interests of businesses.
"Our industry was not looked after during Covid so, quite simply, I believe more needs to happen and change if we are to be looked after when we hit our next crises," Lo Bue-Said told delegates.
Over the past year, Advantage has partnered with Aito to formally lobby government, taking on support from a Westminster-based public affairs consultancy, and has also crated its own in-house member-led policy advisory group. It is also encouraging members to utilise a new "MP toolkit" which sets out the consortium’s key messaging to help them engage their local MPs.
Lo Bue-Said said with significant political and regulatory upheaval on the horizon – a general election, wholesale reforms of the laws governing travel and further consequences of Brexit – it was vital efforts to raise travel’s profile in the corridors of power continued.
"Do I believe the industry needs to upweight its political engagement; yes I do 100%," said the Advantage chief executive. "Why would we settle with doing less? Do consumers not deserve clarity too? If we and our partners don’t invest more in this, once again pubs and theatres and other sectors will be looked after and we will be forgotten again.
"A senior government official recently said to me they were surprised travel agents still existed – it’s not the first time we’ve heard this. It’s simply not an option to let the people running the country think this way."
With much of the legislation governing travel stemming from EU directives, Lo Bue-Said said she lamented the government’s failure to capitalise on the opportunity provided by Brexit "to review the complex regulatory framework" within which travel operates. "[It] feels as thought it’s been trampled on," she said, adding government’s decision not to act on its review of how the country handles airline insolvencies had squandered another chance to "harmonise" the rules governing travel.
However, she insisted travel had made "some good progress" on putting travel in a position that will ensure when the next crisis comes, the sector "will have built strong foundations for the UK outbound travel sector through increased collaboration and recognition".
