Travel industry on brink of collapse as fresh quarantine rules effectively cancel summer

The addition of France to the Foreign Office's 'red' list is a devastating blow for a travel industry that hoped Spain's inclusion might have been the worst of a fretful summer.

France and Spain together represent the most popular summer holiday destinations for British holidaymakers. This year has now seen the summer season shortened at both ends, a disastrous turn of events for the sector.

One travel industry source said of the decision: "Summer is effectively cancelled... We had hoped that France would manage to cling on."

Neill Ghosh, director of sales and services for luxury tour operator Original Travel, said what little hope there was has been extinguished.

"When the government first announced... travel corridors, there was hope in the industry that we could rescue some part of the summer travel season and we saw demand returning very quickly," he said.

"However, the changes in advice for Spain, and now additional countries, has had a significant impact on consumer confidence, not just for those destinations but for all travel. Consumers are, quite rightly, worried about where might be next. And given the obligations on tour operators to refund where Foreign Office advice changes, there is fear for us too.

"Many tour operators rely heavily, some almost exclusively, on the European summer travel season... so the impact on many companies will be catastrophic."

Malta will also suffer from the Government’s latest decision as Britain is the country’s largest inbound tourism market - in 2019, 650,000 Brits visited the island.

Kelly Cookes, director of leisure at The Advantage Travel Partnership, the largest consortium of travel agents in the UK, said: "For the travel agent community the removal of Malta is even more worrying [than France] as it’s a destination more likely to be booked by an agent as a package holiday."

Industry executives are now calling for a more nuanced approach from the Government to avoid the collapse of an industry already trying to recover from record losses this year.

"Everyone understands health before wealth but the Government response needs to be both targeted and proportionate," said Kane Pirie, Managing Director of Vivid Travel. "Switching travel to entire countries on and off is neither. It’s tantamount to nuking your own garden to deal with a mole problem in one corner."

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, is calling for "a sub-national approach to quarantine, in addition to a testing regime for arriving passengers so that those testing negative can avoid having to self isolate – which other countries like Germany have already implemented".

"[The Government should avoid] broad-brush, weekly ‘stop and go’ changes to travel corridors at a national level, which have proven so disruptive to airlines and passengers alike," he added.

One anonymous source who works with a French hotel said of the news: "[They] are reeling – and coping with an exodus of British guests."

Indeed, travellers trying to return from France today to avoid quarantine restrictions face paying hundreds of pounds. The cheapest ticket on a Eurostar train from Paris to London is £210, while the cost of taking a car through the Channel Tunnel on Eurotunnel Le Shuttle services on Friday morning is £260, although all trains after midday are fully booked.

Paul Charles, CEO of travel consultancy The PC Agency and who predicted in The Daily Telegraph on Monday that France, Malta and Netherlands would be added to the quarantine list, said: "The 14-day system of quarantine has to be changed - it creates confusion and anxiety among consumers; it’s hurting the travel sector with lower demand; and it says Britain is closed to the world, just ahead of Brexit. Why aren’t we investing more in testing and testing again?"

ABTA, the UK travel trade association for tour operators and travel agents, echoed his sentiment, calling for a better plan to protect the 221,000 jobs in the industry: "The Government’s measures to restrict travel will result in livelihoods being lost unless it can step in."

Without tailored support, Neill Ghosh adds, the sector is in for further tough times ahead. He said: "The lack of new revenue in a key departure period, coupled with the ongoing burden of refunds and the winding down of the government furlough scheme in the coming months is very worrying for a sector that is trying hard to recover and protect jobs."