TRAVEL CHIEFS IN QUARANTINE PLEA
Sturgeon ‘must now ease rules on return... or industry could face disaster’
TRAVEL industry bosses have warned Nicola Sturgeon she must ease quarantine rules for fully vaccinated Scots returning from amber list countries – or risk ‘far-reaching’ consequences.
The First Minister is yet to announce whether she will change the current policy which forces all those entering Scotland from an amber list country to self-isolate for ten days.
The rule remains in place even for those who have received two doses of the Covid vaccine.
Yesterday UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps confirmed that from July 19 the rule will be scrapped in England for those who are double-jabbed.
His announcement sparked massive concern among Scottish travel industry operators, who fear that Miss Sturgeon may keep the restrictions in place.
Joanne Dooey, president of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA), said it would be ‘churlish’ not to welcome the move from the UK Government – and Miss Sturgeon should ‘swiftly follow suit’.
She said: ‘Travel agents have been forced to remain open for 16 months now to help their clients rebook – sometimes for the sixth or seventh time – yet are still receiving no income.
‘There is little, if any, customer confidence in travel at the moment and the whole sector needs the Scottish Government to get behind a restart to international travel and boost the Scottish economy.
‘If the Prime Minister’s strategy is, from 19 July, to remove legal curbs on people’s behaviour and to end restrictions and allow people to make their own decisions, then surely people should be allowed to travel internationally with more choice.
‘We remain in consultation with the Scottish Government to outline the way forward for Scottish travel and the role testing and vaccination certification will play in this.’
Speaking at a coronavirus briefing, Miss Sturgeon said that she was considering easing the restrictions and was looking at the UK policy change.
She said: ‘We will look carefully at the statement that’s been made by the UK and we’ll come to a decision on that fairly soon in terms of whether or not that will apply to people returning to Scotland.
‘We do really want to use vaccination to the maximum in terms of allowing it to open things up that previously would not have been able to be opened up, so I’m not ruling anything out on that front.
‘But clearly we are at a fragile point in our pathway out of this, so we also just want to be careful that in our understandable desire to get to the end point as quickly as possible we’re not actually making it harder for us to do so.
‘So we’re considering all of this carefully.’
Currently, travellers coming from red list countries must enter quarantine hotels for ten days, while those from amber countries have to isolate at home. Only those arriving from green-list countries are exempt.
An ABTA spokesman said: ‘The announcement by the UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps that from July 19 people in England will no longer have to quarantine on return from amber list destinations is very welcome for the travel industry. It is vitally important that the Scottish Government adopts a similar approach to support hard-pressed travel agents and tour operators, and we also need ministers to consider again the need for further financial support for the travel industry.’ The spokesman added: ‘Already a large portion of the critical summer season has been lost, and it must be remembered that previous grants for the industry were issued as far back as January.
‘Trading conditions were already very tough then and now we’re six months on, still without any significant improvement in business.’
Mr Shapps’s announcement means quarantine-free holidays to major European destinations such as Greece, Spain and Portugal can get under way for the first time since last year.
For the double-jabbed, it also effectively turns 147 destinations currently on the amber list into green-list destinations.
MPs and tourism leaders hailed the announcement as ‘a shot in the arm’ for the beleaguered travel sector and UK economy.
But they also warned that the cost of tests remains a ‘barrier’ to foreign travel for many families as they urged ministers to drive down prices further.
Announcing the move in the Commons, Mr Shapps warned that the extra checks which come with the overhaul could see huge queues at both foreign and UK borders.
And, a Whitehall source said the Border Force was unlikely to have upgraded its system until next month, potentially leading to weeks of chaos.
‘You could easily be looking at queues of six hours to start with,’ the source said.
‘The Border Force is nowhere near ready. What no one knows is how much extra traffic there will be as a result of the change.’
Earlier this year queues of up to seven hours were seen at Heathrow Airport despite passenger numbers being around 15 per cent those of pre-pandemic levels.
There was also confusion last night about whether the Foreign Office will fully align its travel advice to the new amber rules.
It currently advises against nonessential travel to most amber destinations, invalidating most insurance policies and putting people off travel.
‘Large portion of summer lost’