The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Travel is all about confidence – so let’s enjoy the moment
At last the Government has stopped interfering in our holidays and we can start planning for 2022, says Nick Trend
What does the effective abolition of the travel red list announced this week mean for travellers? Should we start counting our holiday chickens and think about booking again as we always used to do before the pandemic?
In some ways, removing all countries from the list feels like a fundamental change, the death knell for the hated traffic light system. The colour codes were supposed to add clarity to our travel plans but instead – because of the many last-minute adjustments which were made to the system and to the ratings for different countries – caused huge confusion and uncertainty. To see the back of it will be a big relief to both the trade and consumers.
On the downside the government says it might, in extremis, red-list some countries again, but that was probably inevitable given the risk of a new variant emerging. More disappointing was that the rumoured replacement of hotel quarantine with self-isolation at home was not confirmed. So the risk of being forced – at a stroke of a minister’s red pen – to spend 10 days in a grim airport hotel at a cost of £2,285 per person still casts a shadow of anxiety over people’s travel plans.
Practically speaking however, Thursday’s announcement will make little difference to most travellers. The last announcement, three weeks ago, had already slashed the list from 54 to just seven countries – Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. While the reopening of the Dominican Republic is certainly a help to those looking for good value sun this winter, among the other six destinations only Ecuador and Peru attract many British tourists.
But let’s remember that travel is all about confidence – and this represents a big boost on that score. So we should enjoy what looks like a historic moment when the Government stopped interfering in our holidays, and start planning our trips for 2022. Caution is still needed. We can’t yet visit Australia and New Zealand and – as Morocco reminded us the other day – we can never be sure that new restrictions might disrupt our plans. However, the last Covid clouds seem to be clearing from the horizon.
Another key change this week – announced in the autumn Budget – was in the rates of Air Passenger Duty (APD) which are due to come into force from April 2023. The economy class tax on domestic flights is being halved to £6.50, while the rate for mid-range flights to Europe will remain at £13, but for longer flights the charge will go up by £3 to £87. And, in an unexpected tweak, a new “ultra-long-haul” band is also being introduced for flights to destinations with capitals which are further than 5,500 miles from London. This will be set at £91 and countries affected will include South Africa and Thailand which I’m not sure many people would consider “ultra-long haul”.
So it’s a mixed bag, and Rishi Sunak’s professed aim with this policy – to help reduce carbon emissions – strikes me as somewhat ill thought through. Reducing the cost of domestic flights – where most people have a clear alternative and could travel by rail instead – is not the way to persuade us to fly less. The changes will cut many domestic return fares by 10 per cent or more and make it even harder for rail companies to compete. And I don’t think hitting those travelling much longer distances (who have no alternative but to go by air) will reduce carbon emissions either. The extra charge is just another irritating way of extracting money from travellers. Adding an extra £7 to an airfare which already costs £1,000 or more is not going to deter people from booking.