Chief Editor Lucy Huxley from Travel Weekly spoke to Julia Lo Bue-Said from The Advantage Travel Partnerships, Joanne Dooey from SPAA the Voice Of Travel In Scotland and Paul Charles from The PC Agency. Together they addressed the consequences of the 14-day quarantine enforced by the British Government and here is what we have taken away from this session and our comments in italics.
The newly implemented 14-day quarantine is financially reckless, unworkable and poorly thought out.
There is no certainty as to when these measures are going to end and the measures are not backed up by any science.
Quarantine should have been implemented at the beginning of the pandemic to be effective.
A conversation about air corridors needs to take place urgently as the trade needs to be able to plan.
The government is focusing on inbound and totally ignoring outbound travel as it doesn’t understand how the travel industry operates. However, quarantine will not help that sector either?
According to many MP’s and financial circles, quarantine is a tactic from the UK government to deprive EU countries from UK visitors in an effort to prove how powerful the UK economy is amidst Brexit. But will the European destinations want us anyway with our high number of cases and deaths?
By implementing these measures, the government is creating a second wave of economic crisis. The economic recession is in full swing since March this year with a 20.4% drop in the economy in April announced last week and the economy is not set to recover for another 14 months.
500 companies across the industry have joined the Crush Quarantine campaign. This group is considering taking legal action against the government, possibly in partnership with airlines.
Legal actions may not bring a quicker resolution since the process is very long winded.
The easiest way forward would be to negotiate a deal with the EU in order to open some travel corridors. How likely is the EU to be interested?
Unless things start moving quickly, massive waves of redundancy and business closures are expected over the coming weeks.
The travel industry is not very good at lobbying as it is not represented by one voice. There is a need for a more powerful and united front. And the industry is spread across government departments.
The quarantine measures are very hard to police therefore it makes tracking their success virtually impossible.
The many exemptions in place (about 50) are making the policy very difficult to implement in the first place
On a more positive note, the FCO has changed its wording about non-essential travel from indefinitely to currently.
To listen to the full webinar session click here
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