Holiday bookings set to skyrocket after government announces relaxation of international travel rules
Holiday bookings are expected to skyrocket after the government announced a relaxation of international travel rules.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps revealed on Friday September 17 that the traffic light system is set to be replaced from October 4 with a single, reduced “red list” of destinations where travelers arriving in England will have to quarantine themselves in a supervised hotel by the government. .
Fully vaccinated people will no longer need a pre-departure test before returning from destinations not on the red list.
From the end of October, travelers will be able to replace the second-day PCR test with a cheaper lateral flow test.
Online travel agency Skyscanner said it saw a 133% increase in traffic within 30 minutes of Mr Shapps’ announcement. There had also been “huge increases” in searches for destinations such as Turkey and the Maldives ahead of Friday’s announcement.
Alan French, chief executive of travel company Thomas Cook, said mid-October bookings were up 200% from August. He said he expected that figure to increase due to the change in travel rules.
He said: “Based on our bookings already today, I would expect this weekend to be the most important of the year as people take advantage of the great deals, new rules and more. easy on testing and streamlined system for international travel. “
Andrew Flintham, managing director of holiday company TUI UK, said he had seen “an increase in bookings for Turkey in October” and expected customer confidence to increase with the new travel rules.
“PCR tests play a crucial role in identifying variants of concern”
Following the announcement, concerns were expressed about the change in approach to Covid-19 testing when it comes to travel.
Labor has raised concerns about how monitoring of Covid variants will continue as part of plans to remove PCR testing requirements.
Shadow Secretary of Transportation Jim McMahon said: “PCR testing plays a crucial role in identifying variants of concern and ministers must now explain in detail how they will continue this surveillance – including whether they plan to increase test sequencing – to make sure we don’t. see a repeat of the failures that allowed the Delta variant to quickly spread across the country. “
The Scottish government has said it will also drop the traffic light system, but will not follow England in removing the requirement for pre-departure testing for fully vaccinated travelers returning from countries not on the red list.
Scotland also won’t follow England using side flow tests on day two at this point.
The Welsh government has said it will consider the changes proposed by the UK government, but Health and Human Services Minister Eluned Morgan warned they could “weaken the line of defense on importation of infection and increase the opportunities for new infections and new variants to enter the UK and Wales “.
However, Scotland and Wales have said they will reflect changes to Red List destinations.