DIRECTORS of a travel firm with a base in Whitchurch have joined in with a protest outside Westminster to promote recovery for the industry following Covid-19.

Mark Johnson and Philippa Wilcox are directors of Polka Dot Travel – based in Green End – and the pair attended the Travel Day of Action outside parliament on Wednesday.

Mark and Philippa say the day has come after the travel industry has been decimated over the last 15 months since lockdowns began across the world.

Mark added: “We couldn’t simply shut up shop and furlough all our staff.

"We had to look after our customers and their future bookings, our customers still needed us, they needed our support to either help cancel and refund their bookings or help them rebook to an alternative date, we needed man power for that.

"[We had] 25 out of the 90 staff working tirelessly to help our customers.

"While this meant we weren’t making any money and travel had ground to a standstill, we were impacted as we had to then refund all cancelled bookings, we weren’t just not earning we were giving money back.

"Along with this we had to pay our staff to do this. Imagine a clothing store closing but having to keep staff employed to refund back everything sold within the last few months.”

They say the Travel Day of Action on Wednesday is to get Government attention towards the troubles the UK travel industry is facing, they are hoping to highlight the plight of the industry and get some much needed coverage.

Philippa added: “We fully support the need to safely restart travel, we are here in London today to highlight the plight the industry is in, if travel isn’t going to be restarting soon the government need to look at tailored support for the industry.

"Its been heartbreaking over the last 15 months and more to witness businesses suffering, staff losing their jobs, tour operators collapsing – we are the only industry that can’t operate and that needs to be recognised fast!”

Helen Johnson, fellow company director, added “We decided not to re open on April 12 because of the remaining uncertainty around international travel.

"Instead we have our team of Polka Dot Staff operating from our call centre located just outside Oswestry; this team are looking after all calls, emails and Facebook messages for the entire store network."

Polka Dot has branches across Shropshire, Cheshire, Mid & North Wales, Wirral, and Staffordshire.