Sarah Praguer
Co-author of Saggerson on Travel Law and Litigation
President of the Travel and Tourism Lawyers’ Association

It’s hard to believe that it was five years ago that I was enjoying the company of friends and colleagues and the hospitality of the team at ESTHE-INATEL. It feels like only yesterday. And yet, in that five year period, we have seen the implementation of the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Directive, one of the most important pieces of legislation in the travel and tourism field for many years; we in the UK have transitioned from being a Member State of the EU to Brexit; and, of course, the world has undergone an unprecedented challenge to the industry in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic. That the industry has survived at all is a testament to its resilience and to the dedication and determination of those involved in it. But it is now more critical than ever that the industry, and we professionals who support it, pull together across Europe and further afield to rebuild what has been lost, and, in the words of the British Prime Minister, to build back better. And so, it is with some trepidation, but with confidence in my colleagues and fellow lawyers from across the world, that I look to the future as I celebrate the important work being done at ESTHE. Let us hope that, in a further five years’ time, the tribulations of the last year or so will have receded into the distant past as we celebrate the resurgence of the industry as it recovers, slowly but surely, from the effects of the pandemic.