Health secretary Matt Hancock and prime minister Boris Johnson have both waded into the row to urge people not to travel to amber and red list destinations, despite it being perfectly legal for them to do so – and safe to do so, according to the findings of the report of the government’s own Global Travel Taskforce.
The taskforce last month set out its plan to restart international travel "safely and robustly" through a new traffic light system, which the government formally announced on Friday 7 May. It came into effect on Monday (17 May).
However, less than 48 hours later, the industry has been thrown into disarray after both Hancock and Johnson said people shouldn’t be travelling to amber list destinations without good reason, despite the traffic light system having been specifically designed to allow travellers to make their own decision on whether to travel, and whether they could afford to self-isolate and pay for tests upon their return.
An Abta spokesperson said: "It doesn’t make sense for the government to tell people they shouldn’t travel to amber destinations when the government itself has put a plan in place that allows them to do this in a risk-managed way, with mitigations such as testing and quarantine.
"The recent comments and mixed messages from ministers undermine the government’s own system for international travel and further erode consumer confidence."
They added: "While we understand public health is the priority, the government has moved the goalposts on the return to international travel. In April, it laid out a sensible plan to enable people to travel overseas, with a traffic light system of measures and mitigations to help prevent the reimportation of the virus on the return home.
"This is supported by the Foreign Office advice which manages the risk to people in-destination. International travel is now legal again and the traffic light system needs to be allowed to work as originally intended."
