Industry bodies have urged the government to rethink its testing regime for travel after confirmation that all 11 countries currently on the red list would be removed from Wednesday.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed the red list move on Tuesday, but said current testing requirements would remain in place at least until a review in the first week of January.
Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer welcomed the change to the red list, but said the government “must explain why temporary testing requirements have been retained”.
Tanzer said: “The removal of countries from the red list is a sensible step. However, the government has always been clear that once the Omicron variant is widespread across the UK there would be little rationale for retaining any restrictions on international travel, so the government must explain why temporary testing requirements have been retained until the first week of January.”
“With the testing measures now extending over the Christmas and New Year period, and the industry quickly approaching peak-booking season for summer 2022, travel businesses are facing a very serious situation.”
Tanzer also reiterated calls for financial support, saying: “Consumer confidence in travel has suffered a significant setback, which will outlast these restrictions. The government must acknowledge this by bringing forward grant support to help businesses through the difficult weeks ahead.
“Almost two years into this crisis, there has still been no business support from the Treasury to address directly the impact on UK businesses of the government’s travel restrictions.”
He added: “We also need the government to focus on providing the stability that is essential to rebuild consumer confidence in the longer-term. This must include a robust plan to deal with future variants, developed with public health experts and the industry.
“As part of this there should be transition arrangements for the red list – which would enable people overseas when decisions are taken to place a country on the red list to complete self-isolation at home, along with additional testing measures, to avoid costly quarantine – as well as moving away from pre-departure testing, which is the single greatest barrier to getting people travelling again.”
‘Blanket, expensive and burdensome regime’
Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said: “The removal of all the countries from the red list is a welcome recognition that these measures have little purpose when Omicron is rapidly becoming the dominant variant in the UK.
“It is difficult to understand why the UK and devolved governments did not recognise that the same logic applies to the blanket, expensive and burdensome testing regime.”
Dee added: “The UK is only country currently that requires both a pre-departure test and a post-arrival test for all arrivals, regardless of vaccination status. UK tests remain significantly more expensive compared to the rest of Europe.
“They therefore place a heavy burden on families just as many were hoping to finally reunite with loved ones who live abroad over the Christmas period.
“The four UK governments should urgently reinstate the pre-Omicron travel regime, or risk ruining Christmas plans for so many across the country.”’
Clive Wratten, chief executive of the Business Travel Association, said: “We welcome the news that all countries have been removed from the UK’s red list. However, this does not go nearly far enough to help the beleaguered travel industry. The onerous testing requirements are severely hampering business and leisure travel.
“The BTA urges the government to work with the industry to create effective plans for future variants and a tailored package of support as we remain the only sector operating under restrictions.”
‘Return to pre-Omicron system’
Julia Simpson, chief executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council, said: “We support the UK government’s removal of all countries from the nonsensical and harmful red list, which instead of limiting the spread of Covid-19 only punished countries for successfully identifying new strains of the virus.
“However, we are deeply disappointed that expensive day two PCR tests remain in place – it makes absolutely no sense. We should return to the system in place before these measures were introduced, with no pre-departure tests and a simple lateral flow test on arrival in the UK. Fully- vaccinated people should be able to travel freely and safely.”
Henry Smith, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Future of Aviation, said: “Whilst the removal of the red list countries is a welcome move, that we are maintaining such a high level of restrictions on international travel is surprising given the health secretary’s acknowledgement yesterday that their justification has been minimised.
“Given that these restrictions are likely to see another lost season for inbound and outbound travel, the government must bring forward a full package of financial support measures without any further delay and move to make testing free or at least capped for as long as it is required.”
He added: “After nearly two years of historically low passenger numbers, continuing to impose costly, complex and onerous restrictions on international travel risks causing lasting damage to our aviation and travel industry and the government must make clear why these restrictions remain necessary and bring forward the support that the industry needs.”
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of the Advantage Travel Partnership, called for more consistent decision-making from the government.
She said: “Yet again we are back to yo-yo decision making from the government, with all 11 countries now being removed from the red list just a few weeks after they were introduced.
“This causes significant disruption for the travel industry and the hardworking travel agents who spent days unravelling bookings and rebooking planned trips. We also need to consider the impact these changes have on consumer confidence, combined with the stringent testing measures that are in place, which act as a significant and costly barrier to travel.
“What we really need is for the government to stick to a process and make rational and reasonable responses based on the data available to them rather than suppressing demand for an already fragile economic sector.”
‘Too many knee-jerk impositions’
Gary Lewis, chief executive of the Travel Network Group, said: “Our support for the government’s travel updates during this pandemic has been limited, but we are backing today’s announcement that will see all countries removed from the red list.
“After nearly 20 months of this crisis, we’re going to have to learn to live with Covid and forcing tourists returning to the UK from so called ‘red list’ countries to isolate in expensive hotels was in no way helping the travel industry get off its knees.”
He added: “We fully support some testing measures and we are fully behind safe overseas travel but we have to be pragmatic, Covid is here for the long run.
“We need our government to work with the travel industry to provide clear and timely direction, workable plans and affordable testing solutions. There have been too many poorly-timed, knee-jerk travel impositions, but today we welcome this adjustment to the self-isolation rules.”
Joss Croft, chief executive of UKinbound, said: “We are pleased that all 11 countries are to be removed from the red list, however the UK testing requirements for vaccinated international arrivals continue to stifle businesses across the inbound tourism industry, which employs over 500,000 Brits.
“The health secretary acknowledged that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK, that it is fast becoming the dominant variant and that the justification for our travel restrictions are minimal.
“This negates the need for PCR testing and sequencing. The government needs to further act on these comments and immediately scrap day 2 PCR tests and quarantine on arrival.”