At ABTA’s Travel Matters event, the new ‘Unlocking Travel’s Potential’ report highlighted the challenges businesses are facing employing UK staff in EU destinations following Brexit.
ABTA and Seasonal Businesses in Travel (SBiT) are calling on the UK and EU governments to work together to address the challenges facing employment in the travel industry as the report found the number of UK workers in holiday roles across the EU has decreased by 69% in five years.
Employing UK workers as holiday reps and tour guides, for example, has been fundamental to UK holiday operations in popular EU summer and winter destinations such as Italy, Spain, Greece and France. However as new regulation has been introduced following Brexit, the viability for UK staff to work across the EU is much more limited.
This is proving to be a mountainous challenge for UK travel companies, with 61% saying that problems with hiring UK seasonal staff could have detrimental effects to their growth over the next five years.
It is not only growth patterns that will be affected, travel businesses are also seeing an increase in the cost of employing UK staff overseas. It is estimated to cost an additional £880 to recruit each seasonal worker to work in France. The report also states that many EU countries do not have applicable routes for UK workers to enter.
Mark Tanzer, chief executive of ABTA said: “It can’t be emphasised enough just how fundamental being able to work abroad is for the UK travel industry. Not only do people gain those important language and soft-skills, they’re also set on a path for a good career and many become leaders in the industry.
“With the UK outbound travel industry contributing £49bn a year to the UK economy, and a major driver of growth, not putting in the right mobility arrangements with the EU could come at a cost to UK plc.”
Charles Owen, managing director of Seasonal Business in Travel, commented: “As an industry we rely on UK staff being able to work in the EU to help our businesses grow and thrive. But without a sensible arrangement on labour mobility – growth in this industry will be unnecessarily held back.”
To read the full report, click here.
