Abta’s director of public affairs Luke Petherbridge told the House of Lords European Affairs committee Brexit had imposed a number of difficulties on the industry as well as travellers.
“The experience has been one that has led to huge operational challenges, particularly getting staff into the European Union,” he said.
Prior to Brexit, he said, there were 20,000 staff like reps and ski guides working in Europe under the Posted Workers Directive. Now this was not possible. Where permission was granted, the rule that UK travellers can only spend 90 days out of 180 in the EU did not allow for a whole season to be worked.
“The fundamental challenge is a tourism season tends to last six months… and we have that 90 and 180-day rule – and you are looking to have to obtain visas in 26 of the 27 member states, the exception being Ireland. Then we have mutual recognition of professional qualifications which has fallen away.”
He gave Malta as an example, where guiding qualifications were no longer recognised. France, he said, now stipulated any roles must be first advertised locally and any UK worker subsequently appointed take a medical, with the whole process taking up to 12 weeks.
“And that’s a country that’s actually working pretty closely to put these systems in place.” Other countries had no such visa schemes, he added.
There was also the question of entry to the industry: “Traditionally the ability to work in Europe as a travel rep, ski guide, has been a very rich source of career development within travel.” Many travel business leaders had started in these roles, he said. The development of language skills was another benefit, he added.
“We have blocked the ability of young UK nationals to do that and it seems to me to be deeply regrettable.”
He said the youth and school travel market had also been impacted by the requirement for individual documentation instead of group passports, adding the UK government’s drive to get “as many people as possible” through e-Gates would further prevent the use of collective travel documents, affecting school travel.
In addition, rules known as cabotage meant coach companies could no longer pick up or drop off in the EU.
He added: “There is stuff we could be doing right now that the government simply isn’t being proactive about.”
He mentioned the Youth Mobility Scheme, which allows younger people to work abroad in places like Australia. “This can be used to start bilateral discussions. It isn’t part of that wider controversial immigration debate. It is something that is already there on the shelf.”
