The boss of Barrhead Travel is calling for the Scottish government to review its “disproportionate” decision to impose quarantine on people returning from Greece.
The Scottish government announced its restrictions last night as Wales asked holidaymakers returning from the Greek island of Zante self-isolate for 14 days.
Quarantine restrictions to not currently apply to people returning from Greece to the rest of the UK. The UK Foreign Office (FCO) does not advise against non-essential travel to Greece.
Jacqueline Dobson, president of Glasgow-headquartered travel agency Barrhead Travel, called on Scottish deputy first minister John Swinney to urgently review his decision – and asked for transparency on the number and origin of cases in order to explain why the whole of Greece was removed from Scotland’s exempt list.
She said: “Once again, Scottish holidaymakers are faced with a disjointed approach and a decision that is out of step with the rest of the UK. It is a conflicting and confusing message for those due to travel.
“We [have] so far only heard about one confirmed case from Zante. At the moment, it appears that the blanket quarantine approach to the Greece is disproportionate and excessive.
“Greece is well below the 20 cases per 100,000 threshold that the UK governments use as a guide for imposing quarantine restrictions on returning travellers. And the rise in cases, as the Welsh government have indicated, has been linked to the island of Zante.”
Dobson added: “We would ask Mr Swinney to reflect on his decision and start to engage openly and transparently with the travel industry and holidaymakers so we can all make informed decisions about travel plans.
“Greece has been one of the most popular destinations for last-minute holidays this season and Mr Swinney has now removed one of the only practical destinations left which could have salvaged some sort of recovery for the Scottish travel industry.
“The Scottish and UK governments urgently need to address the damage they are causing to the outbound travel industry with the blanket quarantine approach. A testing solution at airports must be implemented sooner rather than later to give confidence to holidaymakers and to help get the inbound and outbound travel industries moving again.
“Travel agencies across Scotland today will be left to assist thousands of customers affected – but will have no further government support to help them during this continued crisis.”
More: Quarantine applied to travel from Greece to Scotland and Wales
