Asked what he thought of the broader travel sector’s response to the coronavirus crisis, Brett said: "I think it’s been dreadful. I’m really disappointed. We haven’t had a joined-up approach. And we shouldn’t be relying on the trade press to do that. The industry leaders should be doing that.

"The way refund credit notes were explained was dreadful, there was nobody from the industry able to explain that with confidence. The general public didn’t seem to believe Abta when they were saying that refund credit notes were protected. That just wasn’t a strong enough message. There were even people within the industry who weren’t convinced refund credit notes were protected."

Brett said he felt the industry needed a well known and respected public figure to represent the travel sector in the media.

"Someone like Joanna Lumley, someone trusted by the public, to get the message across from the industry," he said. "Whether that’s through television advertising or interviews, we need that. At the moment, we haven’t got a really big figurehead who is known and trusted to represent us.

"We as an industry are not presenting ourselves the best we can. Whenever you see parliament, whenever they refer to the travel industry, they’re referring to airlines.

"We’re not lobbying parliament properly. We as an industry need to appoint a firm of lobbyists to represent us at this time. And if that means we all contribute, or the money comes through Abta and the consortia, it’s something we’ve got to do.

"It’s so obvious that’s what’s happening when you see all the references to the airlines at the moment, and we are being ignored by parliament."

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