Engaging with Government and MPs on behalf of members
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gwilkinson@abt… Thu, 09/05/2024 - 10:31
It’s not just back to school this week, it’s also back to Parliament for MPs, many of whom will be facing their first full parliamentary term as a sitting MP. ABTA has a busy and ongoing programme of activity to engage with the new Government and MPs on behalf of members.
We’ve heard a bit more from the Government over the summer about its priorities, including an update on the state of the public finances and the warning that tough decisions will need to be made.
With the Budget in October, we are focused on making the case that travel can support the government’s growth agenda, and putting forward measures the industry needs to help make that happen, including youth mobility arrangements with EU countries, business rates reform and a competitive APD regime.
As part of our ongoing engagement with MPs, we recently met Christine Jardine MP, who will also be the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Aviation, Travel and Aerospace, and we have more MP meetings in the pipeline, including at the party conferences where ABTA will be in attendance.
More widely we also attended a NITA roundtable in Belfast with the Minister for the Economy in the Northern Ireland Executive, Connor Murphy MLA. This follows our meeting with Ministers in the Executive Office in June and is part of our ongoing work to ensure the importance of travel is understood by politicians across the whole of the UK.
Another development over the summer was the EU’s confirmation that 10th November is the target date for the EU Entry/Exit Scheme (EES) to go live. There is the potential for this new system to cause significant disruption and we continue to work closely with the Government and the EU to encourage mitigations and ensure the new system is communicated to the travelling public.
To help members prepare for the change, we will be holding a conference call specifically about EES on 24th September. Details on how to register can be found here.
It’s also important that we continue to work as an industry to put forward a collective voice on shared priorities. We’ve already met with our Future Travel Coalition partners post-election and have written to the new Tourism Minister together. We’ll be catching up again later this month, and next week we will be getting together with colleagues from aviation bodies to discuss common priorities.
Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive
Continue reading...
Full Page image
gwilkinson@abt… Thu, 09/05/2024 - 10:31
It’s not just back to school this week, it’s also back to Parliament for MPs, many of whom will be facing their first full parliamentary term as a sitting MP. ABTA has a busy and ongoing programme of activity to engage with the new Government and MPs on behalf of members.
We’ve heard a bit more from the Government over the summer about its priorities, including an update on the state of the public finances and the warning that tough decisions will need to be made.
With the Budget in October, we are focused on making the case that travel can support the government’s growth agenda, and putting forward measures the industry needs to help make that happen, including youth mobility arrangements with EU countries, business rates reform and a competitive APD regime.
As part of our ongoing engagement with MPs, we recently met Christine Jardine MP, who will also be the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Aviation, Travel and Aerospace, and we have more MP meetings in the pipeline, including at the party conferences where ABTA will be in attendance.
More widely we also attended a NITA roundtable in Belfast with the Minister for the Economy in the Northern Ireland Executive, Connor Murphy MLA. This follows our meeting with Ministers in the Executive Office in June and is part of our ongoing work to ensure the importance of travel is understood by politicians across the whole of the UK.
Another development over the summer was the EU’s confirmation that 10th November is the target date for the EU Entry/Exit Scheme (EES) to go live. There is the potential for this new system to cause significant disruption and we continue to work closely with the Government and the EU to encourage mitigations and ensure the new system is communicated to the travelling public.
To help members prepare for the change, we will be holding a conference call specifically about EES on 24th September. Details on how to register can be found here.
It’s also important that we continue to work as an industry to put forward a collective voice on shared priorities. We’ve already met with our Future Travel Coalition partners post-election and have written to the new Tourism Minister together. We’ll be catching up again later this month, and next week we will be getting together with colleagues from aviation bodies to discuss common priorities.
Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive
Continue reading...
