Customers will continue to travel to the Canary Islands as long as the UK Foreign Office [FCDO] does not advise against travel to the archipelago, a leading travel agent believes.
The region was removed from the Department for Transport’s list of travel corridors yesterday, meaning those returning from the Canaries to the UK face quarantine restrictions – but the Foreign Office, a separate government department, has not since warned against travel to the Spanish islands.
As long as the Foreign Office does not advise against travel, package holiday companies can continue to operate services.
Abta clarified: “Members will still be able to offer holidays to the Canary Islands due to the decision not to change the FCDO advice. Although customers will be required to self -isolate on return this has now been reduced from 14 to 10 days throughout the UK, from December 14, with the option in England to reduce this still further after five days by paying for a private test.”
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, Amanda Matthews, managing director of Designer Travel, said: “What’s happened historically, up until this point [when a destination is taken off the travel corridors list], is on the Thursday night that we find out, the main tour operators, so for example, Jet2holidays, will say for everyone going tomorrow, don’t go to the airport. And then the following day, they will issue instructions about what happens moving forward.
“Well, last night Jet2 were very clear, ‘we are still operating as of tomorrow’. So our clients that were due to travel today, went. The ones that are due to travel tomorrow are going to go. And obviously you’ve got this test to release thing coming in [on December 15].
“So I think many people will continue with their planned holiday, not least because until the [FCDO] advice changes, airlines and tour operators are still operating flights and holidays, and then they’ll pay for the test to release test, after five days of coming home,” she said.
Consumer group Which? called for Foreign Office advise to be linked to travel corridors, which are decided by the separate Department for Transport, in order to avoid confusion. Travel editor Rory Boland also called on operators to be flexible and offer refunds for holidays affected by the corridor change.
He said: “It is hugely unfair for the government to remove the Canary Islands from its travel corridors list due to high rates of coronavirus, without also updating the FCDO’s advice to reflect this.
“Package holiday customers who wish to cancel because they cannot quarantine on arrival back to the UK will struggle to get a refund, as operators are less likely to cancel without a change to FCDO advice.
“The government must ensure that it coordinates its approach to changing travel advice, while travel operators must offer flexible rebooking options to those who cannot travel, to prevent causing further chaos for holidaymakers and leaving them thousands of pounds out of pocket as a result.”