Tourism minister Nigel Huddleston hopes to see inbound tourism to Britain restart this summer, but said it remains “impossible” to confirm the date for a substantial reopening.
Huddleston told Travel Weekly: “I hope to see some international travel come back before the end of the summer. I can’t say definitely, but I absolutely hope to see that.
“We saw last year how quickly international travel came in as soon as we were able to open the doors. But it’s all within the context of the constraints we have in place because of Covid.”
He noted: “We work closely with the Department for Transport on this. [But] things are fluid – that is the reality. We’re still in the middle of a global pandemic and there is no such thing as risk-free international travel. Most people understand that.
“We’re trying to coordinate, working with key countries where we can, but this is not entirely within our control.
“We know the direction of travel but putting specific dates on it is difficult – well, impossible – and probably not the right thing to do because we don’t control everything.”
Huddleston said he hopes to attract more international events to the UK post-pandemic.
He said: “We need to go after big international events more aggressively and put more focus on business events. We need more events like World Travel Market. That is going to be a key focus of the cross-government work we’ll be doing.
“We’ll be doing that because they’re important in themselves but they also have a massive tourism benefit.”
Asked if he expects World Travel Market to go ahead at London’s ExCel in November, he said: “Yes, it’s a realistic proposition. We’re talking several months out when not only the UK but many other countries are making huge progress with vaccinations.
“We genuinely want to add more countries to the green list. So I’m hopeful we’ll have that.”
However, Huddleston noted: “The hybrid trend in the business conference sector is probably here for a while.
“Personally, I prefer face to face interaction, but it is not always possible. I’ve participated in a lot of international conferences recently and a hybrid mix of live and digital works quite well and suits a lot of people.”