Tell Your Story, ACTA Urges Members
ACTA is urging travel agents to take their concerns about the state of the travel industry directly to their MPs as a federal government budget draws closer.
“We need to continue to raise our voices,” ACTA’s Maggie Santos said during a Tuesday ACTA webinar.
ACTA president Wendy Paradis in turn stated that, “You (agents) can help us help you.”
Webinar viewers were earlier told that ACTA has been meeting with government and opposition officials, relaying its concerns on such issues as extending CEWS.
Viewers were told to take their travel industry concerns to their MPs, being told that “your story can make a tremendous difference” when it comes to formulating government policy, and Santos promised the alliance will continue its “intense lobbying.”
Paradis said Ottawa wasn’t “open to having any kind of conversation” about the restart of international travel in the first two months of this year, which she said got off to a “very rocky start.” But with the number of coronavirus cases in this country falling and vaccinations underway she said “we’re in a much better position” to discuss getting travel up and running again, Paradis continued. But she also said there hasn’t been any “road map” from the federal government for getting travel back on its feet.
The travel industry needs to boost both consumer and government confidence in travel, she continued.
Lisa Pierce, Air Canada’s vice-president of sales for Canada and the United States, also suggested that those planning to travel by airplane and who worry they won’t get their required result showing that they’ve tested negative for coronavirus within the prescribed 72 hours prior to departure should seek out a firm that guarantees test results within 72 hours.
One webinar viewer told of a denied boarding because the result didn’t arrive in time.
Pierce said firms are available that guarantee receiving test results within the 72-hour time frame, although it will likely cost more than testing that doesn’t promise to deliver results within three days.
Pierce told the viewer that getting the test results is a government requirement, and not Air Canada’s doing.
Meanwhile, Santos urged agents who haven’t joined ACTA to consider doing so. “We truly are in this (the fallout for the travel industry resulting from the pandemic) together,” she said, adding the alliance would “continue to fight for you.”
