Travel agents take part in Westminster protest

Polkadot Travel and Peakes Travel Elite are among those taking part in the based in the Travel Day of Action in London which is bringing people together from across the aviation and travel industries.

Directors of Polkadot, Philappa Wilcox and Mark Johnson, are making the trip from Oswestry while Claire Moore, managing director at Peakes Travel Elite, is meeting with MP Daniel Kawczynski at his offices, before taking part in the ticket only peaceful protest that is expected to attract 800 people.

Philappa said: "We are told that we can open our doors to do business, but we don't have holidays to offer people because the government won't let people travel even though the vaccination programme has been a huge success.

"There is no income coming in because we can't fly people anywhere. We need clarification."

Mark said the wolf was at the door for the entire travel industry.

"We need assistance very very quickly. We have had no sector specific support from the government yet it has closed our borders so we can't sell anything."

"If we are not careful this is going to have a huge impact going forward with the possibility of massive price increases in the future."

"We have the best vaccination programme in Europe yet we are not taking advantage of it."

Claire Moore said, “It has been a really tough 18 months in the travel sector. Our travel agency is classed as non-essential retail, so the shop has had to close over the lockdowns but during that time our customers have still needed our support which has meant a full team furlough was not an option for us. We needed to prioritise supporting our existing customers to re-arrange, refund and re-book holidays, through a period with severely reduced new bookings.

“We want overseas travel to open up when it is safe to do so, and until then, we are asking for proper support from the Government.”

Data from ABTA estimates that as many as 195K jobs have been lost or are at risk within the travel industry and the industry says that, without a meaningful summer season many thousands of livelihoods are at stake, as well as the ability of the travel sector to recover and reconnect the UK to the world.

“Travel businesses have suffered more than most companies in this crisis.If people don’t travel then we don’t make any money, it is a simple as that. The summer season is such a critical time for our business, so we desperately need Government to safely open up overseas travel."