UKinbound and ABTA lobby UK politicians to deliver EU youth mobility scheme

UKinbound and ABTA have hosted a youth mobility drop-in event for politicians as part of their ongoing advocacy collaboration.

The event, held at the end of 2024 in the Houses of Parliament in London, was attended by 28 Parliamentarians, giving politicians the opportunity to understand the benefits of improving youth mobility between the UK and Europe.

The associations are calling on the UK government to create a reciprocal UK-EU Youth Mobility scheme as a priority, in a move they believe would help deepen diplomatic and cultural links, enhance opportunities for young people and support UK travel, tourism and attractions businesses.

The current Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) gives young people – normally aged 18-30 – the opportunity to live, work and study abroad, typically for two or three years.

Countries currently taking part in the scheme include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Monaco and Hong Kong.

UKinbound and ABTA have highlighted important EU markets such as France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands as places they believe bilateral or pan-EU youth mobility agreements would help to grow tourism and travel, while restoring lost opportunities for workers in their sectors.

Both associations are also keen to emphasise that the agreements are time-limited and offer no right to remain for participants and therefore should not be conflated with freedom of movement.

Luke Petherbridge, director of public affairs at Travel Association ABTA said: “It’s been really difficult for our members to recruit the people they need to support their operations across Europe since Brexit, so much so there has been an 69 per cent drop in UK nationals occupying tourism support roles within the EU.

“As the majority of people in these roles are young, often just starting out their careers, an agreement to allow the temporary exchange of young people would help to address the significant staffing barriers that UK tourism and travel businesses have faced since the UK’s departure from the EU.

“We were pleased to have the opportunity to explain this to UK politicians and to address directly how these deals are about deepening cultural exchange, extending opportunities for individuals in each country, and enabling businesses to grow. They’re not connected to freedom of movement.”

Joss Croft OBE, CEO of UKinbound said: “We were delighted to meet with so many MPs that are supportive of expanding the Youth Mobility Scheme to European countries. Cultural exchange is a fantastic way for young people to experience life in another country, develop life-long affiliations, learn a new language and develop a new skill that will benefit them throughout their career.

“We’re urging the UK Government to make a reciprocal UK-EU Youth Mobility Scheme a priority, either bilaterally or on a pan-EU basis as part of the UK’s review of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement in 2026.”

In light of the upcoming review of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation agreement UKinbound and ABTA are continuing their collaboration on a series of joint advocacy campaigns. The YMS drop-in event is the second of three joint activities focused on advocating for youth mobility, In November the associations hosted a lunch for six Labour MPs and will be hosting a joint Parliamentary reception in Spring 2025.

UKinbound and ABTA are the leading trade associations for inbound and outbound UK travel and tourism, a sector which contributes £82.5 billion annually to the UK economy and employs more than 1.3 million people.