The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has called upon the UK government to call time on its “widely discredited” travel traffic light system.
The call comes after last night’s addition of seven countries to the green list which came as Thailand and Montenegro were added to the red list.
Turkey, which had been confident it would move to amber, remained on the red list at the 51st change to the system.
The WTTC, which represents the global travel and tourism private sector, believes both consumers and the industry have lost confidence in the system and condemned the “endless chopping and changing” which it says “only benefits an unregulated market of costly test suppliers”.
It wants fully-vaccinated people to be allowed to travel freely except for to red-list countries, in a system more aligned to the Foreign Office (FCDO) travel advice, used before Covid.
Airlines bosses made similar calls in their response to yesterday’s traffic light lists update.
The WTTC believes travel should also be allowed, with testing, for the unvaccinated, “to ensure those who are unable to get vaccinated are not discriminated against” – but it calls for PCR tests, which require lab analysis for genomic sequencing, to be replaced with typically less exensive antigen tests – or for the government to cover the cost of PCR tests, which it says is “putting travel out of the reach of hard-working families”.
Julia Simpson, WTTC president and chief executive, said: “The traffic light system is widely discredited. It puts the UK at a disadvantage and is squandering the vaccine dividend.
“This is the 51st change in a baffling array of travel bans. Holidaymakers are confused and frustrated. The UK government is seriously damaging the travel and tourism sector, which in turn supports thousands of businesses and jobs.
“The UK government appears to have no exit plan. The Global Travel Taskforce, set up to oversee these haphazard travel restrictions, must set out a clear strategy to recover normal travel.
“Nowhere should be off limits to anyone in the UK who is fully-vaccinated, except in exceptional circumstances.”