Ride for LifeLine   The ABTA LifeLine Convention cycle ride will take place on Monday 10 October, brought to you by Intrepid Travel and Avis Budget Group. Tickets are £45 per person, and all proceeds will go towards supporting ABTA LifeLine and local charity Amal which helps disadvantaged women in Morocco.   Led by one Intrepid Travel's female tour guides, the ride will begin at Al-Manara Gardens before you head to the Royal Golf Marrakech, the Adgal Gardens, The Palmary, and finally cycle back to Gueliz via Casablanca's Road, passing by Marjane market, and ending up at the Amal Association for lunch.   Please book your ticket when you register or, if you wish to book at a later stage, email the Convention office.   Why I am attending   Giles Hawke, CEO of Cosmos Tours, tells us why he’s looking forward to this year’s Convention…   “The Travel Convention is the essential conference to get the insight and knowledge to help me, my business and our people to navigate the way ahead, as we return to some degree of business as usual. The world has changed fundamentally, and what people want and how they behave has been heavily affected. Getting a deeper understanding and awareness of what the world is going to look like in the future is vital at this stage.”

  Rt Hon Rory Stewart OBE   In a remarkable career, the Rt Hon Rory Stewart OBE has been an academic, writer, adventurer, diplomat, soldier and politician. He is currently a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs where he teaches politics and international relations.   At the Convention, Rory will explore what's going on in the world that will have an impact on the economy in the short-medium term, and how this may affect the travel sector.   Why I am attending   “ABTA’s Travel Convention in Marrakech is the perfect forum to catch up face-to-face with trade partners, to look to the future to inspire positive changes for our industry, and to hear expert speakers share their knowledge, insight and experiences. The Travel Convention comes at a great time, and I am honoured to have recently joined the ABTA Lifeline Board of Trustees. I have seen the valuable and meaningful contributions ABTA Lifeline makes to our industry, so please sign up for the ABTA Lifeline Cycle ride and help us make a difference." Claire Stirrup, Sales Director, UK & Ireland at Celebrity Cruises.    

  ABTA is delighted to announce the return of its annual overseas Travel Convention, the UK travel industry’s flagship event.   Taking place in the imperial city of Marrakech from 10-12 October 2022, the three-day event will include two days of thought-provoking and high-level business sessions, as well as a wide range of supporting events that will provide valuable opportunities to network in both business and social settings.   The Convention will also provide the chance for ABTA Members, travel journalists and the wider industry to experience the latest tourism developments in the Red City first hand.   Registration will open on Tuesday 3 May.   Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive at ABTA – The Travel Association said:   “I’m very pleased that Marrakech will be hosting the 2022 Travel Convention this October and would like to thank the Moroccan National Tourism Office for making this possible. As ever, the event will provide a crucial opportunity for the industry to come together to discuss the future of travel and tourism and we’ll be releasing more details about the event content shortly.   “It will also be a fantastic opportunity to show travel professionals what this vibrant destination has to offer – from its rich cultural heritage, spectacular scenery, and ornate architecture, to warm hospitality and delicious cuisine. Over the last couple of years, a number of new attractions have launched, meaning delegates will get the chance to take a fresh look at this popular destination.   “I really encourage you to note the dates in your diaries and look forward to welcoming you at what is sure to be a fantastic event.”   More information will be available at www.thetravelconvention.com.

  As travel reopens retaining current and engaging new staff is one of the most pressing challenges facing the industry. ABTA will be running events throughout March, April and May which will help travel companies display their commitment to development and training for both new and existing staff.   The events include presentations and practical demonstrations from leading experts in Crisis Communications, Claims Handling, Digital Marketing and Complaints Handling and they are open to all with ABTA Members benefiting from discounted attendance rates.   Eve Coburn ABTA Head of Events said:   “We are very conscious of the pressures facing the industry as travel restarts, particularly the need to retain and attract good quality staff. The ability to offer good quality training is an extremely attractive incentive and our events consistently achieve high satisfaction rates, offering practical informed advice and training from leading experts in their field.”   The upcoming training events include:  

• Crisis Communications in Travel – 30 March. ABTA’s practical training day will prepare you to effectively manage your communication strategy in a crisis. Learn what the media want in a crisis, how to produce an effective media message and prepare your spokespeople, how to manage the immediate response when a crisis hits and maintain communication during and post-crisis and how to effectively manage social media to protect your reputation.
• Claims Handling in Travel – 31 March. Designed for travel businesses of all sizes, this practical training day will take a deep dive into three key areas of litigation: breach of contract; accident on holiday and personal injury claims; disclosure and evidence, including hearing preparation and trial. Leave with a full understanding of your legal obligations and the steps to take in handling and responding to a claim.
• Digital Marketing Masterclass for Travel – 7 April. This new advanced-level training day will explore the latest strategies, tactics, tools, tech and trends in digital marketing – including SEO, PPC, social media, content and video. Learn how to cut through the noise and enhance your digital know-how and how to deliver successful online campaigns that drive traffic, deliver leads and boost sales.
• Complaints Handling Training for Travel – 11 May. ABTA's popular training will give you the crucial tools and skills to help you deal with complaints effectively across a variety of channels including email, phone and social media. Learn how to manage challenging customers, best practice for evidence gathering and reporting, hear how industry peers deal with complaints and how to overcome the common challenges you face. Get an introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), learn how to prevent complaints and hear real-life examples.

  Additional training days to be released shortly include:  

• A Beginner’s Guide to the Package Travel Regulations
• A Guide to Travel PR Campaigns

  Further detail on the events, plus registration and rates can be found at abta.com/events

ABTA is running events throughout March, April and May to help travel companies hone their development and training for both new and existing staff. The events include presentations and practical demonstrations from leading experts in crisis communications, claims handling, digital marketing and complaints handling and they are open to all with ABTA members benefiting from discounted attendance rates. Eve Coburn ABTA Head of Events said: “We are very conscious of the pressures facing the industry as travel restarts, particularly the need to retain and attract good quality staff. The ability to offer good quality training is an extremely attractive incentive and our events consistently achieve high satisfaction rates.” The upcoming training events include Crisis Communications in Travel on 30 March, followed by Claims Handling in Travel on 31 March. Digital Marketing Masterclass for Travel takes place on 7 April, and then Complaints Handling Training for Travel on 11 May. Additional training days to be released shortly include:A Beginner’s Guide to the Package Travel Regulations and A Guide to Travel PR Campaigns.

ABTA revealed the most popular destinations for 2022, with the US the top long haul trip for Brits. In fact it is the second-most craved destination overall, leapfrogging France, and only behind perennial favourite Spain. ABTA says almost 1 in 5 (18.1%) of people plan to travel stateside this year. New York and Florida are the top US picks. The US reopened its borders to UK tourists in November 2021. The ABTA poll found increased interest in holidays to neighbouring Canada too, making it the ninth most popular destination for 2022. "January is typically when people start to plan their holidays for the year ahead, so we'd encourage anyone who is thinking of booking a holiday to speak with an ABTA member, said Graeme Buck, communications director.

ABTA has teamed up with Deloitte for a new project to help advance the industry's understanding of climate change. It will explore the impact it will have on travel businesses and the actions needed to reduce global emissions. Over the next year ABTA and Deloitte will be collaborating on a range of activities that will help ABTA members understand climate change, what decarbonisation looks like across the industry - for hotels, aviation, cruise, ground transport and tourist destinations, and how their businesses can deliver meaningful change. Together ABTA and Deloitte will engage senior leaders from ABTA member travel companies on climate change and provide support to develop meaningful responses. The project will build on the work from ABTA's Tourism for Good report. The project was launched at ABTA's Decarbonising Tourism event this week. Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of ABTA said: "Climate change is a global threat and the travel industry, along with all other businesses and government, has an important role to play. We have seen some good progress in recent years but that work needs to be scaled up and continue as a matter of urgency." "Through this collaboration we want to further develop the industry's understanding of climate change and engage senior leaders in what they need to be thinking about for their businesses." Alistair Pritchard, Lead Partner for Travel & Aviation at Deloitte said: "Our collaboration will involve bringing greater clarity for the sector on the changes required to help business leaders plot their course to a more sustainable future."

ABTA announced the last round of Regional Business Meetings for this year which will take place on Zoom. The meetings start from 9 November and run through to 22 November. ABTA members are encouraged to register and book their place. During the meetings ABTA will provide an update on Covid, ATOL consultation and ABTA's position on sustainability, following the COP26 summit. Sustainability will also be the theme of a panel discussion and whether members are seeing an increase in interest from customers for sustainable travel arrangements. Other matters to be discussed will be the Package Travel Regulations, bonding renewals, and ABTA's Travel with Confidence campaign. Danny Waine, ABTA's Head of Membership, said: "As travel opens up with restrictions lifting in many of our most popular overseas destinations, we will have a great deal to talk about in the Regional Business meetings. Sustainability is increasingly taking centre stage and we will set out what the industry is doing to limit our impact on the planet." "These informal, free-to-attend events help members keep on top of the latest industry developments, policy updates and industry trends.." ABTA Members must book to reserve their free place, by registering at: www.abta.com/regionalbusinessmeetings .   Meetings are scheduled on the following dates: November 9      East/Greater London/South November 11    Midlands/North East/Yorkshire & North Midlands November 15    North West/South Wales/South West November 18    Scotland November 22    Northern Ireland   All regional meetings start at 6pm.

Following COP26, ABTA is highlighting the role the travel and tourism industry must play in tackling climate change, through a new video message and industry webinar. In a video message to members, CEO Mark Tanzer says tourism's challenge is to balance the benefits with the costs and reiterates ABTA's commitment to working with members to meet tourism's sustainability challenges. This encompasses both environmental and social, as laid out in ABTA's Tourism for Good report. Tanzer says the industry needs to work with governments at home and internationally on how to develop climate-friendly tourism for the future. ABTA is also working with aviation partners to drive towards lower carbon aviation, with the aviation sector committing to achieve net zero by 2050. Additionally, ABTA's Travelife for Accommodation helps the industry manage sustainability through the supply chain, accrediting hotels which improve their environmental footprint. To help members understand the implications of COP26 for travel businesses and how travel companies can take action, ABTA will be running a free webinar for members on 11 November. Non-members can also attend for a small fee. The event covers the highlights from COP26 and the implications for travel businesses,  and showcasing a tour operator innovation example on how it is setting and meeting carbon targets. It will also explore how hotels and aviation can achieve net zero and how tourist destinations are planning for and adapting to climate change. Speakers include Dirk Glaesser, Director, Sustainable Development of Tourism, UNWTO; Christopher Imbsen, Director of Sustainability, WTTC; Emily Cromwell, Director, Sustainability, Deloitte; Andy Jefferson, Programme Director, Sustainable Aviation and Manuel Butler, UK Director, Spanish Tourist Office. Members and non-Members can register for the event through ABTA's website. Watch the video in full here  

ABTA has detailed its demands from the Chancellor in next week's Budget. Despite a more positive outlook following the easing of restrictions, there is still a need f to extend business support measures, CEO Mark Tanzer says in a new blog post. Despite the more positive outlook for international travel, following the easing of restrictions, it will take time for travel to get fully back on its feet and there remains an urgent need for the Chancellor to extend business support measures. ABTA wrote to the Chancellor outlining what the travel industry needs in the Budget. "In our submission we asked the Chancellor to use next week's Budget to: Provide an update on the additional £1.5bn to provide targeted support for businesses which have been unable to benefit from the existing business rates relief. Urge local authorities to prioritise travel businesses for financial support under the Additional Restrictions Grant funding - with £300m left unspent, councils need to make sure that travel agents and tour operators are getting this much-needed funding. Provide tailored financial support for the travel sector in the form of specific recovery grants for travel agents, tour operators and other businesses dependent on international travel. "We also stressed the need to make sure the right taxation framework is in place to support the industry's recovery. Several of our members have reported concerns with plans to increase corporation tax to 25% from 2023, especially with the industry on a much slower recovery trajectory." ABTA has also supported wider calls for reform to the current business rates system. "The Chancellor also needs to look at the role of APD in the industry's recovery. Over the last year and a half, we have seen cuts to VAT to benefit the domestic tourism sector, but these cuts have no impact on companies selling package holidays or on the outbound travel sector. APD is the only comparable measure that HM Treasury has at its disposal. " ABTA supports a short-term reduction in this tax to boost recovery, but also continues to highlight the need for fundamental reform to deliver a more environmentally efficient regime."  

ABTA has revealed what to expect and the line-up for the new hybrid Travel Trends Conference. Designed to support the continued recovery of travel businesses, it is a full day event that will take place on 24 November. The hybrid format means participants can register for the in-person conference, which will be held at Google's offices in central London, or join the virtual event, where they will watch a live stream of the sessions on the day and interact via a custom platform. Attendees will get up-to-date information from industry leaders on important travel segments - including luxury, over-50s, youth and cruise - and hear about new technology developments and trends. Industry experts will discuss how the pandemic has changed consumer behaviour, including shifts in holiday habits. At the event ABTA will be revealing the results of new research, giving delegates a first look at some of the travel trends expected for 2022. Speakers already announced include leaders from businesses such as GWI, Kuoni, Cosmos Tours, Carrier, Black Tomato, G Adventures and Byway Travel, Barrhead with more to be confirmed. Both in-person delegates and virtual attendees will be able to submit questions live to expert speakers and enjoy networking opportunities at the end. ABTA Director of Communications and moderator for the event, Graeme Buck, said: Devised to help travel businesses adapt to a constantly changing landscape, ABTA's Travel Trends conference includes both expert advice and industry examples to showcase how businesses can capitalise on new opportunities." The event programme can be accessed at abta.com/traveltrendsconf.

ABTA is launching a new replacement for the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) in late summer 2021 to ABTA members. It is being developed by technology company Travel Ledger. The scheme is ABTA's direct debit system for allowing fast online payments between travel agents and tour operators. Transactions are consolidated by the payment scheme, so that each week only a single payment is made in or out of each Member's bank account. Under the new scheme ABTA Members have control over their payments, not only who they transact with, but also by facilitating deposit and balance payments from travel agents to tour operators, and refunds from operators to agents. In time, ABTA members who join the scheme will have the opportunity to process payments more frequently with the potential for more than the one cycle per week that the current scheme allows. After evaluating various systems, ABTA chose to partner with Travel Ledger because of its understanding of the travel industry. The new system has been tested by ABTA member focus groups over the last few months, allowing members to review and refine the scheme. It will use the same process as on the older platform, for a seamless, uninterrupted transition Travel Ledger is an electronic invoice and remittance system which is connected to UK and European banking for easy and secure payments between travel buyers and suppliers. Once live, Travel Ledger will provide user and technical support to ABTA mmembers, who will be able to review their own data, as well as identify potential problems with transactions in advance, before payments are authorised or transactions fail. John de Vial, Special Adviser at ABTA, said: "The new scheme will use the latest technology to allow fast, accurate and secure consolidated payments and refunds." In 2019 ABTA members settled more than 600,000 bookings worth more than £900 million.