The association has created a template email for members to send to their local MP. Resources are available from abta.com/savefuturetravel
It will also be directly briefing MPs ahead of the debate, with a particular focus on the need for ongoing financial support while outbound travel remains suppressed.
MPs will convene at 6.15pm to discuss the matter; it follows a parliamentary petition calling for a resumption of international travel to allow people to see family and friends overseas.
Now the government has lifted its blanket ban on international travel, the scope of the debate has been widened to consider the challenges facing the travel industry.
Conservative MP for Don Valley, Nick Fletcher, will chair the debate.
Luke Petherbridge, Abta’s director of public affairs, said the association had already met with Fletcher and briefed him, but stressed it was "vitally important" the industry used the opportunity to make its voice heard.
"To do that effectively, we need business owners and those working in travel across the country to contact their local MPs to ask they attend and speak in support of the travel industry," said Petherbridge.
"Travel has often felt like a forgotten sector in terms of government support, especially when it comes to grant support that has not been targeted at addressing the consequences of severe government constraints on international travel."
Petherbridge highlighted the government’s recent restart grant scheme as an example; high street agents, whose shops are open with little to sell owing to restrictions on travel, have typically received less by way of grants than neighbouring business such as hairdressers, whose services are in great demand.
‘Strength of feeling’
Additionally, Petherbridge said some businesses had been forced to go more than a year without support.
"Government only amended the guidance to urge local councils to give discretionary grants to tour operators more than a year into the crisis, and many other businesses, including homeworkers, have been left entirely excluded from grants support," he said.
"A government minister is required to attend and to respond to the debate, and we need to ensure they are left in no doubt about the strength of feeling in this sector that we have not been supported adequately," he added.
Beyond grants, Abta is also calling on government to extend furlough support, retain full business rates relief, and to bring forward recovery grants for businesses operating in the UK travel industry.
It also wants government to review the existing traffic lights regime to facilitate travel, including by further lowering the cost of testing and revising testing rules for green countries that are deemed low risk.
