Worcester travel agent and Chamber Member ArrangeMY Escape says the ‘media frenzy’ over holidays abroad could have a bigger impact on bookings than the rules themselves.
Jennifer Lynch, General Manager of ArrangeMY Escape, spoke out about the headlines all over national front pages about fines for those travelling overseas without what is being referred to as “a reasonable excuse”.
People in the UK are currently not permitted to travel abroad, apart from a small number of exceptions, but the ban is set to become a specific law in England from next week with £5,000 fines set to come in from Monday, March 29. Overseas holidays are not permitted until May 17 anyway and a third wave of Covid-19 is currently sweeping Europe, casting fresh doubt over the chances of restrictions being lifted in time for a summer getaway. However, with the bulk of Arrange My Escape’s business being for 2022, Jennifer expects the impact to be minimal – provided the headlines do not put off those making longer-term plans.
She said:
“In a nutshell, nothing has actually changed. We already know travel before May 17 2021 is illegal and fines would be issued. A new legislation is to be voted by MPs to extend the Coronavirus Bill should it need to. Health secretary Matt Hancock has insisted no changes have been made to England’s timings for resuming international travel, it is May 17 at the earliest and that has not changed. It is still very clear that the Global Travel Task Force will report back to the prime minister on April 12 and publish their report, only this will give us as an industry and our customers clear and precise information. It is important to say that this is highly confusing information from the media, especially for the general public, when essentially we already knew this information. With the majority of our new holiday bookings being for the summer of 2022 this news has no impact. Only after April 12 will we be able to act upon the official information moving forward.”