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FROM THE PRESIDENT ...

SPAA TRAVEL QUIZ – ABZ + GLA HEATS – FOR PICS VISIT THE GALLERY 

OUTBOUND TRAVEL – A HIDDEN POWERHOUSE OF UK PLC

If you take the time to download and read only two documents this week, I strongly urge you to invest a few minutes of your precious business time in browsing through :

Driving Growth – The Economic Value Of Outbound Travel (ABTA) click here
Submission – All-Party Parliamentary Enquiry on UK Aviation (SPAA) click here

If ever two insightful and coherent arguments were made, one - for the significance of our business sector to the UK economy and, two - the urgent need for Government to pay proper attention to its future aviation policy, they are made concisely and assertively in these two documents. The value of inbound tourism has been examined and analysed effectively for years, yet ABTA’s newly released report demonstrates, probably for the first time, that outbound travel represents almost as large a contribution to UK Plc – no less than £54 billion annually (3.8% of UK GDP).

Meanwhile, our Submission to the Enquiry on the competitiveness of UK Aviation throws into sharp focus – yet again – the damage being done to this vital business sector by taxation and the lack of investment in development. You may rest assured we will continue to fight, not only the aviation case but also the case for sensible progress on the leisure travel front – not least given the current and likely continuing strength of the pound against the crisis-ridden Euro. Holidays in the Euro zone, despite the ludicrous level of APD, have rarely been better value – a fact not missed by the media this week, and an opportunity for each of us. I hope your own leisure travel bookings are reflecting the pound’s strength with a significant upswing.

Following up on the latest in our ongoing series of meetings with our British Airways colleagues, we will be meeting with a number of leisure travel partners in the coming weeks. Please let us have your comments, concerns and questions and we'll be sure to raise them with colleagues from Superbreaks, holiday autos, Travel 2, Thomas Cook, Gold Medal and Kirker Holidays. Of course, we will be reporting back to you following each meeting.


Kevin Thom
SPAA President
18 May 2012