Can we start thinking about international travel again?
Q What evidence do you have to suggest that we will all be going to Europe in “early spring”. This seems to contradict everything we have been told.
Caterina T
A Just a reminder on current travel rules. You and I are unable to go on holiday anywhere in the UK or abroad. British travellers who happen to be overseas at present and who want to come home must test negative for coronavirus before boarding a plane, and self-isolate on arrival for 10 days.
Unsurprisingly, almost no one is travelling. Many people see this as a good thing and would like the UK borders to be closed completely. In the next few weeks though, I expect the outlook to become much brighter. As the appalling death toll from Covid-19 slows and millions more people are protected against the virus, I believe that the governments of the four nations will start to dismantle the barriers against travel – both within the UK and abroad. I predict domestic restrictions and blanket quarantine will be gone before
the end of March, though the need to have a coronavirus test before travelling back to the UK may endure and many countries will remain on the no-go list.
At the same time, European holiday nations will start to open up to tourism. Some may wait a few more weeks as they battle with particularly high levels of coronavirus and vaccinate the most vulnerable in their populations; Portugal and Spain will not be first to the party. Others may offer easy access only to visitors who can produce a vaccination certificate. But as intense competition for the post-pandemic tourism market gets under way, I expect countries such as Greece, Italy and Cyprus to welcome us back at some time in April.
Don’t expect any coherence in the way that these travel possibilities emerge: last summer, as the first lockdown came to an end, even the four UK nations had very different approaches to domestic travel. But as Europe wakes up from this dreadful winter, the opportunities to travel safely and responsibly will multiply. By May – which I will happily define as early summer – European travel will flourish. Do hold me to these predictions.