TravTalk India Online Magazine
Simon Waldron, a Travel Consultant at Travelserv based in the UK, says that his fact-finding tour earlier this year showed that the travel market was in chaos and the best thing to do at the time was to temporarily close down. He adds that while the interest for travel to India from the UK might have increased in the past, presently, there’s barely any demand.
Hazel Jain
You have made a conscious decision to close down shop for this year. Tell us why?
We returned from a fact-finding tour (visiting a number of new potential partners we had met at PATA Travel Mart 2019) of Malaysia, Thailand and Qatar in mid-February to find the market in chaos. When we saw how many other travel companies and independent travel advisors were struggling to keep up with the demand for changing and cancelling trips for their clients (often a significant cost in time and lost commissions), it quickly became evident that it would not be cost-effective to continue operating. We were lucky that we did not have too many clients booked for trips in 2020 and were able to change/cancel their bookings relatively easily.
When do you plan to restart your business? Do you see some green shoots of travel in the UK?
We are hoping to restart business in early 2021. But at present, the signs are not good that the travel industry will be able to deliver the holidays that people want, to destinations that they want to go to, due to continued effects of the pandemic and the limitations on travel to different countries changing day by day.
Currently, we do not see any green shoots of travel being restored and although a number of travel advisors have posted fairly positive reports on their own experience of short-haul travel on specialist Facebook groups, they report many destinations do not have all the facilities (restaurants, bars, tourist attractions) open.That, coupled with having to wear face masks in a large number of places, including on flights, does not make the idea of travelling to get away from it all seem attractive.
Are the travel associations speaking to the government to extend some help?
There appears to be no support from travel bodies in the UK, such as ABTA, making any representations to the UK Government on the problems faced by the travel industry, despite numerous calls for help and support. Many of the low-cost airlines are still refusing to give refunds to customers, which is also making more work for travel agents.
The government has done nothing to help the travel industry. We made a plea to the UK government to recognise the travel industry. The UK had a scheme for restaurants in August where government would pick up 50 per cent of the bill, but there is no support for the travel agents.
What would you like the government to do for the B2B travel distribution channel?
The UK Government does not seem to have any recognition or support for the travel industry, which is creating hardship for those employed in the sector. What would be nice to see is:
Continuation of the furlough scheme to support businesses, as I believe they have done in Germany.
Better policing of grants to small businesses/independent travel advisors to help them stay in business.The current system appears to be open to fraudulent applications denying money to those who really need it.
A voucher scheme where clients are given a voucher to make a booking through a travel agent.
