The travel
industry has broadly welcomed UK transport secretary Grant Shapps’ announcement
that fully vaccinated travellers would be able to return to England from amber
list countries 19 July without having to isolate but says more needs to be
done.
Clive Wratten, CEO
of the Business Travel Association, said: "The BTA welcomes today’s
announcement from the Department for Transport. This is a vital kickstart for
British businesses.
“We urge the Government to prioritise international protocols for overseas
business travellers so we can completely take our place on the global trading
stage."
Andrew Crawley, American Express Global Business
Travel’s chief commercial officer, said: “Today’s news is a step in the right
direction, and we wholeheartedly welcome that double vaccinated British
residents will be able to return to the UK from an amber country without having
to quarantine from 19 July. Government should now actively engage with
airlines to execute the changes to avoid overwhelming UK Border Force.
“It is, however, disappointing that this
announcement excludes overseas visitors, including business travellers as any
quarantine requirement will hinder a return to travel and trade.
“We urge the Government to embrace the emerging
global protocol of exempting all fully vaccinated travellers from quarantine
requirements. The technology is already in place through the EU digital Covid
certificate and Verifly in the US so there is no reason why we cannot act.
“Every day counts, and we risk lagging even further
behind our EU counterparts who have taken steps to permit the entry of all
double vaccinated travellers without quarantine. We cannot afford to wait.”
Shai Weiss, CEO of Virgin Atlantic said the news was "a positive development".
He said, "With the launch of a proof of concept trial on selected US and Caribbean routes from this week, we are ready to implement the new policy and to work with Government and authorities to ensure safe and seamless international travel.
“The Government’s announcement should now lead to significant changes to the ‘green’ list from next week and further relaxation of testing requirements for fully vaccinated passengers of all nationalities arriving into the UK from ‘green’ and ‘amber’ destinations from 31 July. This approach is consistent with that taken by the US and the EU to fully vaccinated passengers, and will pave the way to restart of the essential Transatlantic travel corridor, without which £23 million is lost each day from the UK economy.”
British Airways' CEO and chairman
Sean Doyle said: "We're pleased to see this
common-sense approach which is already working safely for many other countries,
but there is more work to do. While the quarantine requirement for 'amber'
countries is being lifted for fully vaccinated UK travellers, the
Government needs to quickly extend this to all vaccinated
travellers [and] agree a reciprocal deal with the US."
Mark Tanzer, ABTA chief executive, said, “Today’s
announcement will be strongly welcomed by travellers in England, and by travel
companies across the industry. Having to quarantine when returning from an
amber list country has been a very significant barrier to travel for many
people.
He added, “There is a lot more than needs to happen
for the industry to get back on its feet, and the need for Government support
remains pressing."
Many in the industry have raised the issue of the high
costs of testing.
“Government also needs to work to reduce the cost
and need for testing, as well as making sure it has the right resources at the
border to deal with the increased number of passengers,” said ABTA’s Tanzer.
Stewart Wingate, CEO of Gatwick Airport, said: “We urge Government to remove other barriers inhibiting
international travel, including the need for costly PCR tests for those who
have been double vaccinated. At the very least, if tests are required,
they should be the more readily available lateral flow tests or PCR tests
carried out free of charge at an NHS facility, as has been done in
France.
"We would also urge Government to urgently follow the lead of EU
counties to ensure that internationally agreed, coordinated protocols are in
place so that processes when crossing borders to other countries are as smooth
as possible, with no unnecessary queues, checks or costs.”
Johan Lundgren, easyJet CEO, said: “With unnecessary testing staying in place, more
needs to be done. We do not want to see a return to flying being a preserve of
the rich and expensive testing could sadly make travel out of reach for some
this summer."
Merilee Karr, chair of the UK Short Term Accommodation Association, said, “It is very important that the Government prioritises getting the UK economy back on its feet, especially the tourism and hospitality sectors, who have suffered terribly since the start of the pandemic, losing many months of bookings with no way of recovering them.
“We would like to see conversations happening now with the Government about how we fully open up the country to double vaccinated travellers from green and amber countries and encourage more international visitors to come to the UK this summer. The short-term accommodation sector is well placed to cater for visitors who meet the specified criteria as they offer self-contained accommodation enabling safe social distancing, strong industry-wide cleaning standards.
“We need to enable business travellers access to the country so that the UK’s global economic footprint can continue to thrive. We agree with the Prime Minister that now is the time to relax the majority of Covid restrictions and that those should extend to travellers from other countries coming to the UK.”
Alexander
Limpert, co-founder and CEO of property letting company GuestReady, said “The UK has been trailing behind other markets as
international business and leisure travellers, even from countries with much
lower Covid incidence rates than the UK and no variants of concern, have been
deterred from visiting the UK by onerous entry requirements. That these entry
requirements are finally being adjusted is positive news and should help the
economic recovery in the UK.”
No announcement has yet been made by the UK's devolved governments on reopening travel.
Joanne Dooey, president of The Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association, said, “Scottish travel agents and travellers need to know that Scotland will swiftly follow suit.
“We continue to raise the question of travel certification and how Scotland will deliver a scheme to allow the public to provide proof of vaccination status in order to fly to other countries. Currently English travellers can use the NHS app to prove their certification status and this integrates with the EU digital Covid certificate.
“The Scottish Government needs, as a matter of urgency, to tell us what stage, if any, the development of a Scottish app is at. Currently, Scots who wish to travel, have to apply for a paper certificate and we need to be operating at the same level as the other countries which have developed and are already using this technology.
“While Scotland faces more expensive testing that in other UK nations, we persist in lobbying for the cost of testing to be at least equitable across the UK.
“If the Prime Minister’s strategy is, from 19 July, to remove legal curbs on people’s behaviour and to end restrictions and allowing people to make their own decisions, then surely people should be allowed to travel internationally with more choice. We remain in consultation with the Scottish Government to outline the way forward for Scottish travel and the role testing and vaccination certification will play in this.”