The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
In it for the long haul
Operators are banding together and asking for Britons to be allowed to visit far-flung destinations. Chris Moss reports
In support of The Telegraph’s new Unlock Long Haul campaign, aimed at restarting travel to destinations beyond Europe, nearly 70 travel firm bosses have written to the Foreign Secretary to demand that his blanket advisory against “non-essential travel” be lifted after lockdown.
Since March, the FCDO has warned against all “non-essential” overseas travel, but exempts destinations that “do not pose an unacceptably high risk for British travellers”. In the summer, much of Europe fell into this category.
With Covid-19 cases now rising across the continent, that list is shrinking. Yet the vast majority of long-haul destinations – including almost every nation in Africa and Latin America – are still being snubbed. This is despite many having a far lower case rate than the UK.
The letter to Dominic Raab, signed by the bosses of leading firms including Last Frontiers, Steppes Travel and Sunvil, as well as trade organisations such as the Association of Independent Tour Operators, points out that the FCDO advisory means those who wish to travel to non-exempt countries must do so with “inadequate or no insurance, something the Government’s own Travel Aware campaign was set up to avoid”. They are also, in nearly all cases, required to self-isolate when they return to Britain – a barrier that is further stifling business.
Specialist long-haul tour firms employ thousands of highly trained sales and operations staff, as well as expert guides. In the UK, the winter sun travel market is invaluable to holiday businesses and supports millions of jobs across destination countries – many of which are developing nations.
As the letter to Mr Raab warns: “We all either work for or represent specialist and long-haul tour operators, and have all had to make valued members of staff redundant. Even more tragically, we have all seen increasing levels of poverty, poaching, and other environmental damage in destination countries.”
Many winter-sun destinations, from Costa Rica to Egypt, are also now fully open to tourists, including those from Britain. Most have falling or stable coronavirus case rates, have recorded far fewer deaths per capita than the UK, and many have state-of-the-art medical facilities that, in a worst-case scenario, can be accessed using travel insurance.
Danny Callaghan, CEO of the Latin American Travel Association – which represents hundreds of firms and agencies – said: “Ending the blanket travel ban is one of the two essential things that our industry needs to focus on, along
side testing on arrival, so we support it. The blanket ban was an effective way to put the brakes on at the start of the Covid outbreak, so that we could take stock of the situation and understand how to carry out safe travel, but the continuation of the advice is unwarranted.
“The tourism industry has worked hard to understand and mitigate the challenges posed by Covid, and the time is now right for the blanket ban to be reversed.”