Travel industry insiders predicted a surge in bookings for October half-term as ministers cut England’s travel red list to just seven countries, all in Latin America: Peru, Colombia, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Venezuela. Travellers from other destinations will no longer have to quarantine in a hotel on their return to the country.
The decision to reduce the red list from 54 countries to seven was taken at a meeting on Thursday morning, after discussions about the safety of opening the country’s borders.
UPDATE: From Monday (11th Oct) 📅 I’ll be cutting 47 destinations from our red list – including South Africa, with just 7 countries and territories remaining ⚠️ – all others will be included in the “rest of world” category 🌐 [1/3]
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) October 7, 2021
Travel rules changed earlier this week to scrap the traffic-light system that graded countries red, amber or green. Now there are just two lists: “red” and “rest of the world”.
Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy the PC Agency, said the announcement was “major progress” for the industry, but called on the government to further simplify the rules on testing for holidaymakers.
He predicted that there would be an almost “immediate surge” in holiday bookings. “This is a highly significant moment and it will give people the confidence to go abroad again. It really is encouraging for the travel industry and it shows that it is perfectly safe, as long as you are vaccinated, to start travelling again. But what we need the government to do now is to remove any layers of complexity around testing.”
Discussions are currently taking place on when PCR tests can be replaced with significantly cheaper lateral flow tests with the government only saying the change will take place by the end of October. Currently, fully vaccinated travellers need a negative PCR test to avoid isolation from non-red list countries.
Liz Matthews, UK general manager of Flight Centre, said the decision was a “massively positive step”: “The vast majority of the world is now open to UK travellers, with just a few destinations off-limits.”
Flight Centre bookings doubled after the scrapping of the amber list last month, and now the company anticipates high demand for winter sun destinations including Mexico, Bali and South Africa. Looking ahead to January, peak sales month for flights, Matthew said: “By far the most important thing now is…
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