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Travel 'ban' shows Nicola Sturgeon will score political points over Boris whatever the cost to her country

"No doubt Boris Johnson will now follow Sturgeon's lead and try to trap us at home for the winter" - getty
"No doubt Boris Johnson will now follow Sturgeon's lead and try to trap us at home for the winter" - getty

It is distressing to watch our leaders pursue a policy of travel lockdown by stealth without, it would appear, any consideration as to how the travel industry is expected to survive the fallout from all the flip-flopping.

The latest shot across its bows came last night when Nicola Sturgeon – keen as ever to score more political points over Boris Johnson whatever the cost to her country – scrapped the rule of six, threatened a “circuit break” lockdown next month, and suggested that no Scot should be booking a holiday over the October half-term.

Do politicians have no idea how the travel business works? Most families will have booked their autumn break up to a year ago. Many who were forced to cancel holidays over Easter due to the lockdown will have rebooked for October rather than taking a refund, much to the relief of cash-strapped tour operators. Now, having failed to test-and-trace a spike in Glasgow, the Scottish government is ruining the lives of many more people than the virus will reach.

No doubt Boris Johnson will now follow Sturgeon’s lead and try to trap us at home for the winter. But if he is brave he should look at what’s happening in Germany, which treats its citizens like grown-ups instead of giving us a patronising talking-to full of timeworn cliches.

From October 1, Germany is abandoning its blanket travel warning to all countries outside Europe. “Unrestrictedly differentiated travel and safety information for individual countries will apply again”, says its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, despite a seven-day infection rate of 14.9 per 100,000 and rising.

So there may well be Germans on the beaches of Kenya, the Maldives and Egypt this winter. But if the British government has its way, we will not be joining them on the sunloungers. Are Britons really to be denied travel to countries with far lower rates of transmission than our own. Why can’t we make up our own minds on the level of risk we are prepared to take?

There are countries that, not entirely surprisingly, will not let British travellers in without quarantining. But many others with low infection rates, notably in the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East, simply require a recent (negative) Covid test result.

Coronavirus Quarantine Tracker Extended
Coronavirus Quarantine Tracker Extended

Recognising this chink of light, British Airways has teamed up with a private provider to offer Covid-19 home test kits for £93. A negative test followed by a few days of common sense precautions prior to travel should allow us to fly again.

The problem is travel insurance. While the FCDO has a blanket advisory against all but essential travel for all countries that are not on the fast-shrinking ‘travel corridors’ list, most travel insurance policies are invalidated.

Even where insurance cover is in place for travel-approved countries like Italy, Greece and Turkey, companies are trying to wriggle out of covering anything to do with Covid-19, even though the risk of contracting it while away is very small.

Nationwide, Trailfinders and AllClear are among rare exceptions. They will cover Covid-related claims both before you travel and while you are away. But they will not cover countries on the FCDO’s travel advisory list. You can buy specialist insurance from a few brokers – Campbell Irvine is one such – but these will not cover any Covid-related events.

For insurance cover to be reinstated the Government needs to follow Germany’s lead and introduce a targeted approach to travel advisories instead of banning travel to entire countries and their outlying islands.

If it does not, there is no doubt that people will start to ignore travel advisories, buy specialist insurance, and fly out to visit friends and relatives as well as looking after their mental wellbeing with a dose of sunshine on a far-flung beach.

It is time for the Government to work with the travel industry in a constructive and forward-thinking way. If it continues instead to throw more curveballs it will soon be sounding the death knell for the British travel business, an industry held in such high regard that people from all over the world choose to organise their holidays with British companies because of their knowledge and expertise. To see such an important industry implode would be a real tragedy.