Travel news latest: Spain, Portugal and France bookings to soar as amber list gets go ahead

A group of more than 120 scientists and medics have called on the Government to halt its plans for lockdown lifting, describing them as a “dangerous and unethical experiment”.

In a letter to the Lancet, they warned millions more people will became infected if it goes ahead, leaving hundreds of thousands with long-term illness and disability through long Covid. Signatories include Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the council of the British Medical Association, and Sir David King, a former government chief scientific adviser.

“This strategy risks creating a generation left with chronic health problems and disability, the personal and economic impacts of which might be felt for decades to come,” the letter said.

“Allowing transmission to continue over the summer will create a reservoir of infection, which will probably accelerate spread when schools and universities reopen in autumn. We believe the Government is embarking on a dangerous and unethical experiment, and we call on it to pause plans to abandon mitigations on July 19 2021.”

Read more on our live politics blog.

Virgin Voyages, the cruise lines from Sir Richard Branson, has revealed its second lady ship, Valiant Lady, will make her official debut in UK waters in spring 2022 before heading to Barcelona to sail in the Med for the summer. 

Itineraries include a three-night ‘long weekender’ in Zeebrugge and an 11-night voyage around the Canary Islands, Spain and Portugal.

The cruises go on sail from July 21.

Ahead of Grant Shapps speaking in the House of Commons in the next hour, Steve Witt, founder of travel agency Not Just Travel, has said that the news amber list countries will not result in quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers is “a very exciting development”.

He said:

We know travellers are eagerly awaiting the news that the world is open again. We welcome any move that allows customers to safely travel again. There has never been so much pent-up demand to travel and so this is a very exciting development.

Last Sunday was our busiest Sunday in 17 weeks and our second busiest of the entire year. 75 per cent of all bookings yesterday were last-minute breaks for this summer.

Allowing fully vaccinated customers to travel opens up so many possibilities. Moving from 10-day isolation to a test-based system allows people to travel flexibly yet safely. This is a great step forward in that it means we all have many more options to get away this summer. It gives us confidence to plan our holidays both now and in the future. Although there are still many more steps to go before the entire world is available, this is a very important one.

A wave of excitement has filled the entire travel industry as we start to feel that the world is opening up again. This is a big psychological step for the UK public and a statement to the world that we are serious about travelling. It is also a big relief to the travel industry. It’s not the answer to everything, but it feels like momentum is really building now.

As the BFI celebrates the broadcaster’s centenary, Chris Moss reflects on Whicker’s World and its impact on several generations.

Remember when travel was not about your carbon footprint, collecting air miles or queuing for “speedy” boarding? Yes, it seems a long time ago now, and the more recent travel-related hassles – tests, vaccinations, masks – will be another snap no one wants in their holiday album. Sometimes, it seems government ministers, airline bosses, hotel chains, eco-warriors and grim-faced news reporters are working in cahoots, trying to turn travel into something so complicated and uncouth that we might as well all stay in and watch the telly.

In a hard to imagine prelapsarian era – from the mid-1960s to 1983 – travel had an entirely different image, and it was thanks to the small screen. This was the period when Alan Whicker, British television’s most debonair broadcaster, strode, posed, flirted, quaffed, dined and flew first-class across the airwaves. His landmark show, Whicker’s World, began as a segment of BBC’s excellent Tonight programme in 1958. It went standalone in 1965 and stayed on the BBC until 1968, when it hopped over to ITV for another fifteen years. Next month – a century after Alan Whicker’s birth, on August 2, 1921, in Cairo – the British Film Institute (BFI), on London’s Southbank, will screen a double bill of some of his most memorable work – a fitting tribute to a career that spanned six decades and six continents.

Read the full piece from Chris here.

It would be fair to say the UK and Singapore have had very different pandemics. The UK was hit hard in the first wave, was slow to implement public health measures such as track and trace and has locked down and opened up three times. It has had nearly five million cases and 128,000 deaths. 

Meanwhile, Singapore imposed tough border restrictions, lockdowns and mass contact tracing and testing. Some of the strictest Covid rules on the planet mean there have been 62,000 cases and just 36 deaths in the nation of 5.7 million.

Of course, there are important political, geographic and demographic factors at play but most would agree that Singapore has had a “good” pandemic.   Now, as richer, vaccinated nations talk of learning to live with the virus, those different approaches have resurfaced. 

Read more about the key differences here.

Japan’s government has announced today a new state of emergency stretching throughout the Olympics, as reports said organisers could bar fans from almost all events at the Games.

With just two weeks until the July 23 opening ceremony, coronavirus infections are rising in the capital, and the spread of the more infectious Delta variant has spooked officials. The rising cases threaten to derail plans to let up to 10,000 local fans into Olympic venues, and could mean Tokyo 2020 is the first ever Games held behind closed doors.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the emergency measures – which are far looser than the harsh lockdowns seen in other parts of the world – will be in place until August 22.

Under the virus emergency, alcohol will be banned at bars and restaurants, which will have to close by 8pm. Events such as concerts and conferences will have to end by 9pm.  

Holiday options do exist on the Continent, where you don’t have to isolate on arrival, including old favourites Portugal, Greece and Spain, writes Hugh Morris.

Europeans can enjoy unfettered access to all member states, thanks to the launch of the bloc’s new Digital Covid Certificate. The EU’s app allows users to prove vaccination status, show recent infection or present a negative PCR test, with the aim being that all member states will operate a common entry policy. 

Unfortunately, this does not apply to the UK, with the Government still working on integrating the NHS vaccine app into the EU’s offering. 

But that is not to say there are no countries across the Channel that British travellers can visit without the need to quarantine on arrival. 

Find about about all the options here.

Virgin Atlantic is increasing the number of flights to the Caribbean by nearly 300 per cent after a surge in demand following the Government’s last travel review, which saw Antigua, Barbados and Grenada added to the green list.

A number of Caribbean flights which were previously scheduled to recommence in August will now take off from July, and the airline will introduce the newest, largest aircraft in its fleet, the flagship Airbus A350, five times weekly on its Barbados service from the beginning of August.

Juha Jarvinen, the chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, said; 

There’s long been pent up demand to travel so we’re excited that we can finally whisk our customers away for a much-needed sunny break, with even more available flight options, allowing them to enjoy the stunning beaches, warm climate and welcoming hospitality that the Caribbean has buckets of.   

Read more: Why a holiday to the Caribbean in July is underrated  

As our everyday liberties look set to widen from July 19, will the same easing apply to travel? Perhaps so – but with that, come other concerns to address. Hazel Plush answers some of the most pressing questions, including:

• What happens if you get track-and-traced before your holiday?
• When is the next review of the green, amber and red travel lists?

Find out more here.

Paul Charles, the chief executive of The PC Agency travel consultancy, has set out on Twitter what he thinks the Government can do to help boost travel.

 We’re expecting to hear from Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in the House of Commons at around 11.30am this morning.

Clement Beaune, France’s junior European affairs minister, said this morning that he was advising people to avoid travelling to Spain and Portugal for a holiday this summer.

This was due to the risks posed from the Delta variant of Covid-19, he told France 2.

Nicola Sturgeon has admitted Scotland’s Freedom Day could be postponed again, after two more major health boards were pushed to “breaking point” by a coronavirus surge and NHS staff shortages.

The First Minister said that her timetable for easing rules “was not set in stone” after almost 4,000 daily cases were reported on Wednesday, dashing hopes that a recent rise in cases was on the decline.

She added: “Even though we are seeing a weakening of the link between cases and hospitalisations, if we have a high number of cases even a lower proportion of those cases ending up in hospital can put pressure on our NHS.

“To set dates in stone while we still face that virus would not in my view be responsible. My job is to take hard decisions that get us as safely as possible to that end point.”

Australia’s prime minister has announced that 300,000 coronavirus vaccine doses will be rushed to Sydney, as the country’s largest city struggled to bring a Delta outbreak under control.

As a citywide lockdown entered its third week, there were signs of the outbreak spiralling, with a record increase of 38 new cases in the last 24 hours. Scott Morrison said the situation in the city was “very serious” and urged five million Sydneysiders not to give in to fatigue and obey stay-at-home orders.

Only around eight per cent of Australians have been fully vaccinated – one of the lowest rates among rich nations –  and widespread vaccination is not expected to be in place until the end of 2021.

Read more: Can I visit Australia? Latest travel advice

Most European countries and territories are ‘amber’, meaning until the rules change – and we expected to hear about thay later today – Britons returning from these places have to self-isolate at home for up to 10 days and are subject to at least one extra PCR Covid-19 test.

Countries on the amber list currently include mainland Spain, mainland Portugal, Greece, Croatia and France. 

Find out which places are on the amber list, and what it means for your holiday, here.

Former prime minister Tony Blair warned that “confusion reigns” in international travel.

A report published by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change stated that there are “still significant differences between countries” on what vaccines are accepted, testing regimes, and documentation to prove vaccine or testing status.

Mr Blair said: “The global confusion on travel requires a global solution.

“The recommendations in this paper call on the WHO (World Health Organisation) to take on an expanded role in bringing uniformity to these areas of vaccines, testing and travel credentials.”

Could Turkey, Dubai or the Seychelles make the amber list in the next update? 

When it is confirmed that quarantine rules will be lifted for double-jabbed Britons that the amber list, will, of course, become of greater interest. 

We’ve crunched the numbers to look at which destinations might move from red to amber on July 19.

Take a look at our predictions.

The US will not immediately lift any international travel restrictions, even as it faces growing pressure from business groups and lawmakers, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.

In June, the administration launched interagency working groups with the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, and Mexico to look at how to lift restrictions and eventually resume travel.

“While these groups have met a number of times, there are further discussions to be had before we can announce any next steps on travel reopening with any country,” the White House official told Reuters.

“We have made tremendous progress domestically in our vaccination efforts, as have many of these other countries, but we want to ensure that we move deliberately and are in a position to sustainably reopen international travel when it is safe to do so.”

Here’s more on the Covid-19 test rules for travel, from Charles Hymas.

The Transport Secretary is expected to say that quarantine for double-jabbed Britons coming from amber countries will end from as early as July 19 but will warn holidaymakers that they will be required to take a PCR test on day two of their return.

Children will be exempted from quarantine even though they are not vaccinated, but parents will still have to pay for them to have tests, also on day two of their return. It could add up to £400 to the cost of a holiday for a family of four with additional pre-departure tests.

“Day two testing will remain for arrivals from amber countries, regardless of vaccinated status, as this provides genomic sequencing capability to identify the risk of importing variants,” Mr Shapps will say.

PCR tests for holidaymakers returning from the quarantine-free green list countries will also remain in place for the same reason until at least July 31, when the traffic light travel system will be reviewed for a second time.

Read the full story.

Here’s a recap: 

• Demand for amber list holidays surges ahead of quarantine announcement
• Quarantine-free amber list holidays could start from July 19
• Warning over scam ‘vaccine passport’
• Finland eases travel restrictions for vaccinated EU visitors 
• France scraps free Covid tests for tourists
• Fast-track lanes for vaccinated passengers at Heathrow

​Now onto today’s news.