By Ron Howells • Published: 09 Oct 2021 • 13:06
Travel chief says UK red list change is ‘big hurdle overcome. image: Pexels
A travel chief from Kuoni has said that the UK red list change has overcome a ‘big hurdle.
A travel boss from *Kuoni said that the industry has overcome its “last big hurdle” to mounting a recovery with the slashing of the red list.
“It’s fabulous news. It felt to us as though this was the switch. Travel for us is now back on – there are no two ways about it and we can see that already in demand.”
“For us, the Maldives and Mauritius had already come off the red list, so in a way, we’d had a bit of a run-up. It was also pretty well trailed – so I think for those of us in the travel industry that were following the evolution of events, we pretty much knew that this was coming.
“It was maybe not the big fanfare of previous announcements; it almost felt as though this was the last big one that we needed to get under our belt in order to be able to push on with what we were already planning to do; but in terms of moving the sector forward, it’s a very important announcement. It almost feels as though this was the last big hurdle we needed to get over,” said Derek Jones, UK chief executive of Kuoni parent Der Touristik, speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast.
The number of countries on the UK Covid travel red list was cut from 54 to seven on Monday, October 4. South Africa, Brazil and Mexico come off the red list, which requires travellers to quarantine in an approved hotel at their cost for 10 full days.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the changes “mark the next step” in opening travel.
This latest move was seen as a boost to the airline industry and families separated during the pandemic. Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic remain on the red list.
*Kuoni Travel is a tourism company, operating various services including charter and scheduled passenger airlines, package holidays, cruise lines, and hotels in destinations around the world across nine different geographic regions
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Ron actually started his working career as an Ophthalmic Technician- things changed when, during a band rehearsal, his amplifier blew up and he couldn’t get it fixed so he took a course at Birmingham University and ended up doing a degree course. He built up a chain of electronics stores and sold them as a franchise over 35 years ago. After five years touring the world Ron decided to move to Spain with his wife and son, a place they had visited over the years, and only bought the villa they live in because it has a guitar-shaped swimming pool!. Playing the guitar since the age of 7, he can often be seen, (and heard!) at beach bars and clubs along the length of the coast. He has always been interested in the news and constantly thrives to present his articles in an interesting and engaging way.
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