John Bevan: FCO must review indefinite travel ban now

So as restrictions begin to ease, we finally have the chance to get off the canvas, throw a few punches of our own, and get back in the fight. But unless that FCO advice changes, we remain impossibly handicapped, with one of our hands tied behind out back. Our industry desperately needs the foreign secretary in our corner.

We’re supportive of the campaign launched last week to lobby the home secretary to urgently rethink the new quarantine restrictions that are due to come in to force from 8 June. But our position is that the FCO’s current guidance effectively delegitimises overseas travel and, more than the 14-day quarantine, undermines any real hope that demand can start to return.

Our customers tell us that while they are ready and willing to book and travel this summer, they are nervous to do so while this FCO advice remains in place out of fear of being stranded in the event of a resurgence in the virus. Customer confidence is being undermined, irrespective of whether it is proportionate for a particular destination.

’Positive message’

In a similar vein, they are also conscious of the fact that travelling against FCO advice will either invalidate existing travel insurance policies, or make it harder and more expensive to take out new ones. We believe it is the role of the FCO to protect the interests of British citizens abroad when there is an imminent threat to their wellbeing, but not to regulate – or in this case, end – their free movement once that threat has passed.

Many destinations that are very popular with British holidaymakers, including Spain, Greece, Portugal and Thailand, are reporting they will lift restrictions and welcome inbound tourists from early July.

We are ready and able to make that possible for them with our products and services, but as long as the current blanket FCO advice remains, our ability to do so is being made immeasurably harder. We note many of these destinations have a significantly lower rate of coronavirus infection than the UK.

Furthermore, since we operate on a 28-day cancellation cycle, like most travel businesses, we will have little choice but to cancel holidays for departure in July in the coming days as our policy has to be guided by the current FCO advice.

This means holidays that could be taken will have to be cancelled - through no fault of ours, the destination, or the customer - even though the destinations they are going to are opening, and the customers due to take them are ready to travel.

The FCO has to review its current policy and accelerate discussions with other governments for the creation of the so-called air corridors or bridges, return to destination-specific advice, and help us to send a positive message to the British public the world is once more open for them.

We feel that without this intervention, there is a very real possibility that travel businesses – which support the livelihoods of families across the country – will not survive the summer, leading to the cancellation of many more holidays and loss of thousands of jobs.