Monday, May 10, 2021

"Just book a holiday and take off! Don't see what all the fuss is about" says grandee MP.


 There has been some pretty rotten public relations by the travel trade in the last few months and some of it is reflected in the political attitude towards what they term 'leisure travel' which is a few rungs down the ladder after essential and business travel. 


Its the same with the cruise industry, the welcome mat is put down only to be pulled away before you can board the ship of dreams, reports Julian Bray Aviation Expert and Broadcaster.


So what is going on? The travel trade really need some hard cash,  and quickly, revenue to secure the deals not for this year but next year. The deposits you pay help fund pre- season marketing and pay the staff plus overhead and a variety of backroom operational charges which roll on month by month even if there are few customers beating a path to the shop door. 


So you can imagine that after the big political build up to the introduction of the greenlist that in reality it comes down to just a couple of destinations Gibraltar and Portugal!  


Oh yes, a committee was formed of the great and good, that in turn duly reported into No 10. Hence the multi coloured list of good, bad and in between countries! Sadly, the science has directed hearts and minds in order to come up with a modelled representation of what is safe for us British citizens.


So the scientists, medics, Home Office plus a host of other Whitehall entities, are setting the agenda but in a silo far removed from the operational side of the travel and aviation industries. For a start all aviation deals are struck in US Dollars, not UK Sterling. Hoteliers want their bills paid in local currency and so on. 


All this attracts exchange and other costs at each stage of the deal. so that is OK if all other factors are constant and financial projections can be produced. But wait the Prime Minister has decreed the coloured list system could be subject to change every three weeks! Spain could suddenly claim Greenlist status and Portugal slide the other way....


But you dear reader, have already set your sights on say Portugal and the Algarve but your family always wanted to go to Spain, and demands you change the booking to reflect the new destination....


Clearly no one has thought this through and you might say why should politicians be concerned with the inner workings of the leisure travel business?  Simply HM Treasury has a keen interest in our holiday arrangements. Its the not so small matter of £3.6Billion which until the global pandemic was a regular annual APD (air passenger duty) contribution. But during the pandemic this bounty collapsed to just £582million for the twelve months April 2020 - 2021.


Simply the travel, cruise and aviation businesses rely on a constant flow of revenues and/or bank facilities to keep it all going. 


Any fluctuation in risk such as the change in safe country status,  immediately has a knock on effect right  through the core business, and thousands of other firms throughout the supply chain and destinations. Just one cog out of place and the whole chain collapses and quickly.


So what can be done? Politicians need to fully understand the nuances of world business and work in co-operation with these businesses. Only then can business operate and produce the duty and tax required to keep it all going. 


As IATAs new boss Willie Walsh said: "Greenlist? Its not even worth commenting on." Prove him wrong, Prime Minister that is all we ask.....


Julian Bray 

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