ABTA has used its annual convention to renew its calls for the UK government to take “urgent action” to support the travel sector and boost consumer confidence.

The association revealed a host of new findings during its virtual Travel Convention, including that from a nationally representative sample of 2,000 people, only 15 per cent took a foreign holiday between February and July 2020.

More than half (53 per cent) said they took fewer overseas holidays this past year compared to the previous year, with 87 per cent stating they did so because of coronavirus.

In addition, 93 per cent of people said they were concerned about potential last-minute changes to Foreign Office travel advice and four in five noted concerns about having to quarantine when they return from holiday to the UK, according to the survey.

ABTA stated that “without tailored support, including further grants to aid recovery, travel agents in particular face a very difficult few months ahead”. 

The association noted that the furlough and business interruption loan schemes have provided “breathing space to some travel businesses”, but added in a statement that the government “has been too slow to act on the tailored support that ABTA has been calling for since the start of the crisis”.

In addition, the association said the new Job Support Scheme “does not go far enough for businesses to avoid difficult decisions to let go of valued of staff members”.

As for the Global Travel Taskforce, announced by the government this month, ABTA added that it is vital that it “considers a testing regime and other measures to support recovery of the travel industry”.

Support is considered to be even more important given the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020.

ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “We need to make sure the UK government understands the huge value of the sector and takes urgent action to support it – not just in the immediate future so we aren’t counting the costs of coronavirus for decades to come, but also with long-term policies that will help the industry to rebuild in a greener way.”