In a letter sent to the chancellor, organisations from every part of the UK outbound and inbound travel industry stressed the urgent need for the government to provide tailored financial support for the UK travel industry.

The Save Future Travel Coalition – which is made of up 12 travel organisations – argue that the need for support is becoming even more critical as businesses head towards 12 months of lost income, and deadlines for government-backed loans and the end of furlough looming in April.

Non-essential travel was banned during the first lockdown in March. In July, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office lifted its advice against travel to 63 destinations, but the ability to travel to many destinations was short-lived, with destinations soon placed back on the no-go list.

For example, between March 2020 and January 2021, Brits could holiday to the whole of Spain for just a three-week period, rising to six weeks for France and Malta. ABTA members reported that nine in 10 summer holidays were cancelled.

The coalition is calling for the expansion of the grant schemes available to support all travel businesses. It said liquidity is the biggest challenge facing travel businesses but existing grants schemes don’t address the trading consequences of severe restrictions on international travel. With the vaccine rollout progressing well, companies need help to bridge the gap and survive through to recovery.

The group is also urging the chancellor to extend other financial support mechanisms, such as furlough, VAT deferrals, business rates relief and loan repayments, into the next financial year.

The coalition also said that comments from senior ministers about not booking summer holidays are misjudged as it is too early to make such predictions which only serve to further erode consumer confidence in the travel industry.

Mark Tanzer, chief executive of ABTA, said: “Government policies to curtail international travel have had a devastating impact on the industry. Despite its significance to the UK economy and its recovery, travel has become the forgotten sector, and businesses are running on empty due to a lack of tailored financial support from the UK government.

“The chancellor has an opportunity to address this in his budget. Supporting the sector through this time of crisis will payoff for the taxpayer and the wider economy.”