And since then the conversations have continued – both in Brussels and Westminster, until the new directive was finally published in December 2015, ready to be transposed into UK law on January 1, 2018.

It should have been that simple – two years was an adequate amount of time for the UK to prepare. But the government missed its January deadline this year, publishing the new Package Travel Regulations (PTR) on April 17 – four months late. Even more shameful is that the delay allowed the industry just 10 weeks to prepare for PTR ahead of its enforcement on July 1. Ten weeks. For the biggest legal changes to sales of package travel since 1992.

TTG, along with industry trade bodies including Advantage, The Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association, The Travel Network Group, The Elite Travel Group, Aito, The Latin American Travel Association and the Association of Atol Companies, believes this is simply not good enough.

We are calling on the government to halt the implementation of PTR, delaying it by six months, during which time we demand the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy create a working party to hold face-to-face consultation with the industry on the new regulations.

There are suggestions the government could face a legal challenge from the EU should it fail to implement the PTR on July 1. But such fears weren’t realised when the government missed its January 1 deadline.

PTR will introduce the most significant changes to the travel industry in 26 years. It is unacceptable that the sector is not given the opportunity for a meaningful discussion. The UK outbound travel industry contributes an estimated £28.3 billion to the UK economy. It deserves better than this.