March 17th sees the end of the UK’s restrictions for international travel. It is a landmark day for the industry and should be the start of a marked recovery, after what has been a turbulent and painful two years for Members.

ABTA knows from feedback from the Members and their latest consumer sentiment research that the appetite to travel is there and there has been an increase in bookings as the UK’s travel restrictions relaxed in recent months. 

Obviously, there is still a long way to go in the recovery and for Members to recover from the impact of almost two years of lost revenue. And there is the impact of current global events, especially the war in Ukraine, and the escalation of fuel prices.

But ABTA knows from their research that by and large holidaymakers are not deterred from travel. Holidays remain a spending priority and people say they would cut back on other things before their holiday spend.

There are still challenges around COVID. There continue to be entry requirements for most destinations and ABTA eagerly awaits more information from the UK Government on how it plans to deal with future variants. ABTA will continue to engage with them on their plans, making the case for a proportionate and sensible approach. 

There is also the knock-on effect of the recruitment challenge, as businesses try to entice former employees back to the sector and encourage new ones to join. ABTA is supporting Members to address this and their latest careers in travel webinar this week looked at what businesses can do to attract talent. The webinar is available to view on demand here. ABTA is also supporting the collection of data by the Future of Aviation All-Party Parliamentary Group (TFAG) on the current levels of staff shortages across the UK. More details can be found in this edition of ABTA Today.