TSSA calls for 'bespoke support package' to save UK travel industry

TSSA has demanded Transport Secretary Grant Shapps provide a "bespoke support package" to save jobs in the travel industry beyond the current jobs retention scheme. The move comes after the government imposed a 14-day quarantine on people arriving in the UK from Spain.

The union, which represents staff in the travel industry, wrote to Shapps today, demanding a "bespoke support package" for the UK travel trade and warned that without government support the industry could collapse, pushing thousands into unemployment.

TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes said: 

"With the Prime Minister urging people to go back in to work from 1st August, British workers who've booked trips to Spain will have to choose between cancelling their holidays or taking unpaid leave in order to comply with quarantine rules. Inevitably many Brits will cancel their holidays rather than lose two weeks' wages. Many more will decide not to book a holiday overseas for fear that they too will face the stress of last-minute cancellations.

"We need a bespoke solution that extends beyond the end of the current jobs retention scheme. Without government support there is a very real risk that the UK travel industry will collapse and thousands of people will lose their jobs.

“It is essential that Grant Shapps shows that he learned the lessons from the collapse of Thomas Cook on the last Tory government’s watch – inactivity is simply unacceptable.”