Published on Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Nine travel bodies join forces to create single alliance

Nine UK travel associations have joined forces to launch the Travel Industry Alliance (TIA) to represent both inbound and outbound and business and leisure travel.

One of TIA's immediate aims is to persuade the Government to end the mandatory quarantine of UK arrivals 'as soon as possible'.

The nine associations represent more than 7,000 members.

One of TIA's other pressing objectives is to encourage the Foreign Office (FCDO) to stop issuing travel advisories due to Covid-19 and instead become purely a source of information.

Co-Chairman Danny Callaghan, who is also CEO of LATA said: "Trade and consumers need to make informed decisions about where they can go rather than being effectively banned.

"The current FCDO advice is rather moot in most cases anyway because countries with Covid-19 problems will close their borders, making destination availability almost self-regulating."

The other Co-Chair, AITO deputy chairman Derek Moore said: "We know that quarantine on arrival will render inbound tourism impossible, which also impacts on outbound tourism due to reduced demand for flights, as well as harming the UK's hospitality and retail sectors."

Danny pointed out that the travel industry is used to safely managing travel for millions of customers every year. "While Covid-19 poses slightly different challenges, the principles are the same, and if we are allowed to safely restart, that mitigates the need for financial support and actually see us starting to contribute back to the Treasury."

There are plans for the TIA to join the Future of Aviation and their All-Party Parliamentary Group.

Participating associations are:

• AITO
• ATTA
• BAR UK (Board of Airline Representatives)
• BTA (The Business Travel Association)
• CLIA
• CTO (Caribbean Tourism Organisation - UK & Europe Chapter)
• LATA (Latin American Travel Association)
• PATA UK & Ireland Chapter (Pacific Asia Travel Association)
• UKinbound

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