Most travellers arriving in the UK in December said that having a Covid-19 test before arrival was either ‘very important’ or ‘quite important’ for safety.
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, released this week, 87% of UK residents and 92% of overseas residents quizzed agreed the tests were important.
The survey was conducted during December when travel restrictions had been reimposed amid the surge of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 – and before transport secretary Grant Shapps announced testing rules for international arrivals would be relaxed from this Friday.
In December 2021, most UK residents (92%) and overseas residents (89%) arriving in the UK said they had received at least two Covid-19 vaccinations.
Furthermore, reflecting the expansion of vaccine booster programmes, 28% of UK residents and 18% of overseas residents arriving in the UK had received more than two Covid-19 vaccinations.
Most UK residents (83% in December 2021) returning from abroad said that they found it “easy” or “very easy” to follow the Covid restriction information for the country that they had visited.
The survey results come from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) and the Civil Aviation Authority’s Passenger Survey for the period covering July to December 2021.
The IPS sample used for UK and overseas residents arriving in the UK across the study (July to December 2021) totals 57,024. The monthly sample sizes of the CAA Passenger Survey and IPS are broadly similar.
The release of the figures comes as Abta is focusing its lobbying efforts on ensuring there is no return of travel restrictions for vaccinated travellers as bookings return at volume.
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