London (AFP)
More than 90,000 jobs have been cut or are at risk in the UK travel industry due to the impact of the pandemic on tourism, the Abta Travel Agent Association warned on Monday.
This estimate takes into account the job cuts since the start of the health crisis in the travel sector and its supply chain, said the Abta (Association of British Travel Agents) in a press release.
For the travel sector in the strict sense (tour operators, travel agents and airlines), 39,000 jobs are affected by the pandemic, or 18% of the total workforce.
According to Abta, the social situation has reached a "critical point" due to the impact on the sector of the various measures supposed to stop the spread of the virus.
The British are much less likely to travel abroad, in particular because of the quarantine put in place by the British government for travelers returning from France or Spain for example.
Tourism professionals recognize the benefits of the partial unemployment scheme, which must be withdrawn at the end of October and has not, however, prevented many companies from launching social plans.
But Abta is calling on Finance Minister Rishi Sunak for help so that he deploys specific measures to help businesses and jobs, such as quarantines by region and not by country, or even a temporary exemption from the tax on the plane tickets.
"The restart of the travel sector has not gone as hoped and it is sad to see companies still being affected and jobs lost at an alarming rate", worries Mark Tanzer, CEO of Abta.
He estimates that without supportive measures, especially as the peak of the summer season ends, "tens of thousands of additional jobs will be lost".
The Abta study comes days after the shutdown of student travel agency STA Travel UK, which said it "has no choice" due to the shock of the pandemic. The brand has more than 50 branches in the country and its bankruptcy threatens 500 jobs.
At the beginning of August, the tour operator Hays Travel, which bought the Thomas Cook agency network in the United Kingdom, announced the elimination of 878 jobs, out of a total workforce of 4,500 people.
He spoke of the impact of quarantine and the changes in the partial unemployment scheme which has been putting companies to work since the beginning of August.
Its competitor Tui had announced a few days earlier the closure of 166 branches in the United Kingdom and Ireland, or a third of its network, as part of a restructuring plan providing for 8,000 job cuts worldwide.
© 2020 AFP