The ease in travel restrictions does not go far enough to reboot the industry, a local travel agent has claimed.

Last Monday, eager holidaymakers were finally allowed to get on a plane after the ban on non-essential overseas travel was loosened.

But for Peter Cookson, group managing director at Spear Travels, Boroughbridge, the green list was “a bit of a joke”.

Current rules have placed 12 countries including Portugal, Iceland and Gibraltar on the green list, meaning travellers are required to take covid tests before they leave and before they return to the UK and again within two days of their arrival, but do not need to quarantine.

A further 173 countries are on the amber list, which has tighter restrictions. Travellers to these destinations must take an additional covid test on day eight after they arrive back and isolate at home for for 10 days.

Spear Travels, in Boroughbridge, has not seen a boom in 2021 bookings

For the travel industry to truly get back on its feet, Mr Cookson said the restrictions have to change as the expense of covid testing is discouraging people booking trips.

He has confidence that “pent-up demand” exists but has only received a “handful” of bookings for Portugal and none for amber-list countries.

Mr Cookson expects this low level of interest to continue while strict measures to prevent the spread of covid are in place.  and said people are already re-booking their holidays for next year.

He said

“I think the main thing putting people off are the covid tests, for a family of four it could be around £500. The green list is a bit of a joke, people don’t want to spend that extra money.

“Until we get other countries like Spain, Italy and Greece on the green list, bookings will be slow. We’ve only had a handful of holidays to Portugal.”

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Looking forward he is hopeful for a return to pre-covid levels but said this might not be until 2023.

For now he said his team is focusing on re-booking people’s holidays for later dates and crossing their fingers for changes to the rules.

Spear Travels runs 12 shops across the country, which have reduced their opening hours to keep staff on furlough while bookings remain low.

Have you booked a holiday to an amber-listed country? Tell us about your holiday plans via contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Peter Cookson, owner of Spear Travels in Boroughbridge, reflects on the way the covid pandemic undermined the business he had spent 30 years building up – and looks forward to the start of a new year.

We were in Singapore last Christmas meeting our two-month-old grandchildren for the first time. That was when we saw the first indications of the new infection. Fears were rising of a ‘SARS-like’ epidemic coming again.

Unfortunately, whilst we were there, I had picked something up on the plane. I ended up in hospital with pneumonia. I was given a test for “’flu” and I now wonder what that test really was for and what I actually had? Either way, the test was negative.

‘Radically different’

We returned to Singapore a couple of weeks later to help with their house move and the twins. We were due to be at our second home in Corfu in February to check it out, so we flew from the UK to Athens and onwards to Singapore.

This is when the potential of this new disease was obvious. Leaflets in our seat pockets on the plane dated early December 2019 advised us of the risks of the new “flu-like” symptoms and to make sure we reported them. The cabin crew were masked and mask wearing was advised but not mandatory.

The atmosphere in Singapore this time, even though it was only two weeks later, was radically different. We stayed for two weeks to help them move and were glad to leave. It was obvious that this infection was going to spread more easily than SARS.

In hindsight, as things panned out, we were incredibly lucky to have been able to go and see our grandchildren but, like so many others now, we haven’t seen them since. Zoom is great, but no substitute.

On our arrival back in the UK in mid-February, panic had set in as to what covid would mean for our country. It was difficult to separate our concerns for our personal welfare from those selfish concerns for our 12-strong travel agency business which we had spent nearly 30 years building up.

We realised it was going to be a tough summer, but none of us thought we would still be talking about this now. With the impact of covid and Brexit still unknown, our worries will continue well into 2021.

Without furlough pay, CBILS loans and various grants, it would have been difficult to continue.  I often “joke” about “30 years of hard work being written off in 30 days”, but that’s what it felt like by the end of March.

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Our company had always been financially successful, which stood us in good stead with our cash reserves. But can you imagine a business where you are giving back nearly all your revenue for the previous year, because of cancelled bookings, and for what you had done in 2020, with no new business coming in?

It was 10 months of hell, but everyone is in the same boat and none of it is our fault. Our aims were always to protect jobs, and with furlough and CBILS loans, we have been able to do that.

I don’t usually celebrate New Year’s Eve but this year I will make an exception and be glad to welcome in 2021 with open arms!