Holidaymakers are increasingly prioritising countries with the highest vaccination rates as ministers consider restarting foreign travel to destinations where at least half of adults have been jabbed.
Travel companies told of a rise in demand for holidays in the United States, Israel, Malta and Dubai for late spring and early summer because of mounting speculation that overseas travel will initially only be permitted to the very safest countries.
There has also been an increase in early bookings for countries that have previously confirmed they will be willing to accept British tourists this summer, including Greece and Turkey.
However, overall numbers are still at only a fraction of pre-pandemic levels, with one data provider saying that the overseas travel market was “extremely depressing”.
The government is preparing to outline plans to permit non-essential leisure travel from England as early as next month. The findings of the “global travel taskforce” are expected to be released tomorrow, setting out how a new traffic-light system will operate for international holidays, family visits and business trips.
Advertisement
Quarantine-free travel will only be permitted to “green” countries from May 17, although the government has already made it clear that a series of pre-departure and post-arrival tests will be needed to guard against the importing of mutant strains of the coronavirus.
The government is understood to be considering prioritising travel to countries where 50 per cent of adults have had at least one coronavirus vaccination. That would initially limit travel to a small number of foreign destinations, although other European countries could open up by the summer. Other factors will also be considered including countries’ infection rates and capacity for genomic testing to detect mutant strains. Specific “green list” destinations are not expected to be confirmed until early May.
A series of pilot quarantine-free travel corridors could also be established between England and individual countries including the US and Singapore. This would involve a select number of passengers being tested and closely monitored pre-departure and post-arrival — without the need to quarantine — before the wider reopening of travel between the countries.
Ministers have said that it is still “too early” to book overseas travel, which has fuelled a collapse in overall demand for holidays.
ForwardKeys, which analyses booking data for the travel industry, said that bookings on March 31 for outbound travel over the summer were at just 11 per cent of levels seen at the same point in 2019, before the pandemic struck.
Advertisement
Separate figures suggest that people who are booking early are increasingly making tactical decisions and prioritising countries that are most likely to appear on the government’s green list.
EasyJet said that it had seen a rise in demand for travel to Israel and Malta over the past week. About 60 per cent of adults in Israel and about 40 per cent in Malta have had at least one dose.
Other countries that have previously indicated that they will welcome British tourists have also been popular, including Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Greece, it said.