Britons are snapping up foreign holidays after the announcement that rules on France would be relaxed and the green list expanded.
Travel companies and airlines have reported a surge in demand, despite the announcement coming two weeks after the school summer holidays had already begun.
Hays Travel, the UK’s largest independent agent, said that bookings rose by 193 per cent yesterday. “What we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks is a lot of inquiries and so we had many people who were ready to book them,” Dame Irene Hays, chairwoman of Hays Travel, said.
Hays urged passengers to book with a “reputable travel agent” amid fears that rules on travel could change with little notice. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said no changes would be made to the government’s travel policy until August 26 but warned that he could “never say there is zero chance” that countries could move from the amber to red list in the future.
Hays told Sky News: “As long as people are careful where they book, the travel agent will look after the two things which are most important — one is their health and safety, and second is their financial security. Just to say that at the moment, we will see some of the best prices we’ve seen in years.”
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The airline and tour operator Jet2 said that August bookings to amber and green list destinations jumped 250 per cent yesterday, compared with the previous day.
“The latest traffic light review from the UK government comes just in time for the peak summer season,” Steve Heapy, the company’s chief executive, said. “It is no surprise to see a sudden spike in bookings to destinations on the green and amber lists, as we know that there is enormous demand out there from holidaymakers who cannot wait to get away.”
Bookings of flights to Dubai, which was removed from the red list — from which travellers must quarantine in a hotel on their return — also rose, according to Skyscanner. It was the second most popular destination after Spain, which remains on the amber list, with searches up 213 per cent.
The travel industry hailed the news that France would lose its so-called amber plus status from Sunday morning. The country had been the only amber list destination from which fully vaccinated people were required to quarantine on return. British Airways said that searches for holidays in the south of the country jumped 260 per cent week-on-week.
However, industry sources criticised the government’s announcement, arguing that it was “too little too late”. One senior travel boss said: “The government claims these announcements are opening up travel, but with fully vaccinated people allowed to return from amber countries without quarantine, it means the green list is now basically nonsense.
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“When you consider that, the only meaningful change this week is the France news. And we know quarantine should never have been imposed in the first place. So this only rights that wrong.”
Ministers are advising that anyone returning from Spain should take a PCR test before departure for the UK. While the change in policy is only guidance — and proof of a negative lateral flow test will continue to be accepted at the UK border — campaigners warned that families doing the right thing could face paying hundreds of pounds.
Industry bosses are urging the government to scrap mandatory PCR tests on day two in the UK for fully vaccinated arrivals from green and amber countries. Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, which represents carriers, said the regime put Britain “at odds with our European neighbours”.
He said: “Alongside the continuation of expensive testing and a much smaller than hoped for expansion of the green list — which makes less sense by the day, given where we are with the vaccination programme — this is yet another blow to the sector and families desperate to get away, and means the UK continues to open up far slower than the rest of Europe.”
