Speaking at Elite Travel Group’s conference in Cork this month, Simon Bunce said Abta had been seeking member support and comment on the potential opportunities that could arise when the UK leaves the EU.

“There’s an obvious one which is the Package Travel Directive (PTD) coming into effect in 2018,” said Bunce.

“It’s not a bad piece of work if that’s what you want, and what you have got to have.

“If there’s a chance that we don’t have to have it, let’s have another look at it once we leave.

“What we’re arguing for is that when they introduce the law in the UK, that there will be written into that law a requirement to review it six months after we leave the EU.

“Then there’s an opportunity to say, ‘look at all these obligations under the directive, do we want all the regulations outside of the financial protection?’ Is there a chance that we can come up with our own British package travel regulations which better fit the things the UK industry want?

“We are leading the world on this. Are the EU regulations the sort of thing that we want?”

Bunce said Abta was using its regional meetings to help members prepare for the new PTD as well as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, also arriving in 2018.