Travel industry fury at ‘coordinated campaign’ to undermine holidays

Exclusive: ‘The public has been frightened. Bookings just stopped completely’ – Noel Josephides, former Abta chair

Far Away: St Vincent in the Caribbean (Simon Calder)

Senior travel industry figures have reacted furiously to new travel ban rules which impose a £5,000 fine on anyone going on holiday.

They accuse ministers and advisers of “a coordinated campaign” to shatter hopes of an early summer escape, and say new holiday bookings have “stopped completely”.

England’s latest lockdown law, which takes effect on 29 March, says: “No person may, without a reasonable excuse, leave England to travel to a destination outside the United Kingdom.”

The rules are nominally in force until the end of June, but will be reviewed by 12 April – the day the government’s Global Travel Taskforce reports about the possible reopening of international travel from 17 May.

But a former chairman of Abta told The Independent that he believes “a coordinated campaign” is seeking to undermine confidence among prospective travellers.

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Noel Josephides, chairman of Sunvil, said: “The public has been frightened. Bookings just stopped completely.

“It does lead us to feel that this has been orchestrated in order to deter people from booking, which means that as an industry we don’t know what capacity to put on.

“Flights will have to be cancelled, hotels could well turn round now and say they don’t want to open because they’re not getting a booking flow. 

“It just shows a complete misunderstanding of how the travel industry works.

“It will be a serious blow, not just to the travel industry here but for employment in the travel industries in a lot of our host countries.

“I believe the government must be behind it. It seems completely unnecessary when we’ve been in lockdown, when everybody knows that travel isn’t allowed till 17 May.”

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive at Advantage Travel Partnership, deplored what she described as “more scaremongering today at a time when emotions are charged”.

She said: “Holidays overseas are already illegal until 17 May the earliest, there is no question that right now travel is illegal and I would therefore suggest that we remain measured until the Global Travel Taskforce led by the DfT [Department for Transport] publish their report on the 12 April.

“Despite this ban the government have felt it necessary to impose £5,000 fines on borders now as well as a provision of the travel ban to July.

“As we reflect lives lost and the challenges of the past year there is more confusion on what consumers can do this summer – still some months away. 

“The travel industry is not just about taking holidays. It connects people with loved ones who have been apart for months, employs over a million people in the UK and is a vital component for many businesses – millions of people rely on the eco-system underpinned by international travel.”

Twenty days before the Global Travel Taskforce reports, Ms Lo Bue-Said has called for “clarity from the government, following the data, for when the time is right to provide a criteria for countries that can be visited either based on vaccination numbers and/or transmission rates.

“We also need any vaccine certification system to work hand in hand with testing for those who have not been vaccinated.”

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, told Sky News that the new law did not affect the roadmap for reopening international travel.

“Having said all of that, it is now too early to know where the Global Travel Taskforce will come out and know what the decision will be for 17 May.

“The reason for that is that we are seeing this third wave rising in some parts of Europe and we’re also seeing new variants.

“It is very important that we protect the progress that we have been able to make here in the UK.”