Business travel contributes £600m a day to UK GDP and signatories from across the UK business travel sector are backing a new plan to get business travelling within seven days.
The plan comes from the Business Travel Association (BTA), which unveiled, 10 June, a new pilot travel corridors scheme that, it says, could provide a safe, secure alternative to the existing UK blanket travel quarantine restrictions introduced this past week.
In a letter to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, and the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, the CEO of the BTA, Clive Wratten and over 20 CEOs from across the sector urge the ministers to work with the industry to get business travelling within seven days.
The scheme involves an ‘on the spot’ PCR (antibody) test for overseas business travellers arriving in the UK and UK business travellers returning to the UK.
The BTA suggests a pilot could initially run for arrivals at any UK airport from the three most in-demand short-haul destinations for business travel: Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
The pilot, the association claims, would offer a clear and tested route to enable the UK government to lessen quarantine restrictions for business and leisure travellers providing a much-needed and immediate stimulus for the British economy.
Wratten says: “This pilot can restore confidence across the business community that there is a practical, safe and immediate alternative to the stranglehold of quarantine. One which can enable travel to resume without further delay. Business travel contributes £600m a day to UK GDP. It’s vital that we make this possible now and in doing so, re-ignite the British economy.
“Without this scheme and under current quarantine measures, tens of thousands of jobs across the business travel supply chain are at risk of being lost forever.”
The pilot scheme would allow business travellers entering the UK to book in advance a test appointment for their arrival. Travellers would get their test results in under an hour, which would prevent any infectious travellers from embarking on public transport.
The plan outlined by the BTA and its members could be quickly implemented if the government works closely with industry leaders from across the sector, the association says.
The BTA’s members account for over 90% of UK expenditure on business travel, employing 14,500 people, and making over 30m annual transactions which result in turnover in excess of £11.5bn.
