The UK’s “insane” quarantine rules and slow adoption of tracking and tracing are “stifling demand and recovery”, according to the boss of touring specialist Trafalgar.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, chief executive Gavin Tollman said: “The UK is an enigma to us, because all of Europe wants to welcome the British. But obviously, your government has instituted constraints. It has put in place this 14-day quarantine, which actually has shut down travel and certainly for us, it’s insanity.”
He said British people were keen to travel again but were being hampered by government decisions.
“There is no doubt looking at our web trends that there is an enormous interest from the British market for people to travel, but until they can get out of the island of Britain; until they remove this insane 14-quarantine, it’s a battle,” he said.
“British people want to go on holiday, and it’s just ridiculous to me that someone would go on a 10-day holiday and then come home and have to be put in quarantine for 14 days afterwards.”
Tollman urged everyone in the industry to lobby against the restrictions.
“The airlines are leading this charge but I think all of us within our businesses should be outspoken because it’s just nonsensical; because there are other ways of doing it. Certainly from my perspective, your government is just doing it the wrong way”.
He continued: “We have these corridors which are opening up everywhere. Today, from Geneva, I can travel absolutely anywhere. I can drive to France with absolutely zero constraints. What everybody’s done is look at similar ways of approaching it. Once people come here, it’s just making sure that they’re not bringing in the virus when they come in or taking it away when they return home.”
Tollman explained that in Switzerland, where he lives, widespread testing and tracing has been introduced to allow the country to get back to a degree of normality.
“We’ve seen the power of testing and tracing. Not to undermine the seriousness of this virus but if you get the fundamentals in place, the fact is, we can all live with it.
“You could come and visit me in Switzerland – and you just need to understand tracing and testing when you get here. Testing and tracing will become fundamental to the restoration of travel and the UK is very much behind on that and that is stifling our demand and stifling our recovery,” he said.
Tollman explained Trafalgar had recently experienced a case of Covid-19 in its Geneva office.
“We had an individual test positive in our office here but it was so powerful to see how the government approached it; working with us collaboratively to make sure they traced all those people she was with. They were all put into quarantine for 14 days; we had shut the office to do some deep cleaning; but it was so easy and simple to do and we were back in business in a couple of days,” he said.
“It requires a different way of thinking. But post 9/11, all of us very quickly adapted to the additional security measures when flying and all I am saying is that there are going to be other health protocols that are going to become part of our way of travel. So you might have to go to the airport, you might have to get tested a couple of days before you go, but all of us can live with that if we’re just told what to do.”