Should Holidays abroad be allowed even when lockdown ends?

[Lockdowner35]

Other countries have this policy and done well , should we consider this policy?

Would you want foreign holidays banned if they meant more freedoms here as in bars restaurants and cafes opening fully?

Problem is, how do you define a “holiday abroad”? A Dutch friend usually goes back to Holland for a couple of weeks twice a year - I would be torn between defining that as a holiday or visiting family.

Removing the ability to go abroad means a lot of people would not see their families. Would this ban be indefinite or would it stop after a while?

No, I’d rather schools opened safely.

But for how long? We can't ban travel for ever.
Maybe as a short term solution whilst vaccinations go out to those who are vulnerable.

But it would destroy travel and flight companies, and many tourist resorts abroad will collapse as a result. Banning all holidays abroad indefinitely will cost our economy, and the economy in other countries, an awful lot of money. Who picks up the pieces?

No - not while the pandemic is considered serious enough to need these severe restrictions to civil liberties. I'd rather borders closed to tourists than lockdown.

I work (when I have work) in the UK tourist industry. If we're going to allow outbound travel we need to allow inbound too. Otherwise we decimate our own travel industry further.

If anyone comes in from abroad, whether for work or pleasure, they take a test before travelling. Only allowed on plane or boat or train (Eurotunnel) if it's negative. On arrival, go straight to a quarantine centre. No pissing about signing forms to say you promise to self-isolate... Spend at least five nights at centre. Obviously with full access to hotel level facilities - this isn't a prison! Then take another test. If negative - off you go.

Sadly I think the whole travel industry needs to be suspended until the virus is properly under control.

School is essential.

Holidays abroad are not.

Furlough travel and hospitality workers rather than continue to pay the wages of all sectors indefinitely.

It has been madness all along to allow visitors to keep coming here, and going everywhere, with a pathetic unobserved and unenforced isolation / quarantine system.

I’d rather a foreign holiday than eat out. I’m missing the world! But it really depends on personal preference.

@RainingBatsAndFrogs but the virus is here now, it’s way too late to think about closing the borders for our own benefit because it’s spreading amongst the people who live here. We’d only be protecting other countries at this point.

I’ll take the holiday thank you. I live for my vacations.

I think they should push staycations this year

Travel and holidays were what I worked for. That and ad hoc weekend away.

Take them away and you remove virtually everything that makes me want to work and carry on. I’d quit my job and go minimum wage if I was not working for them

To just suggest just furlough the travel / hospitality staff and open everything else up is crazy. Airlines, hotels, travel agents etc., have other much more substantial costs than just their staff! Why should the travel / hospitality industry be hung out to dry so everything else can “open up”

Insist on a negative test on arrival for visitors. Have border checks - in some countries they use specially trained covid dogs. Think of long term solutions other than locking up the country with no thought to the economy or people’s lives.

The virus is already here. It’s pretty clear it will be here forever - eradication is a complete pipe dream and we shouldn’t give up our lives indefinitely for something that just isn’t going to happen!

Vaccine the elderly and vulnerable and then open up. Accept that covid is here to stay and will be something that makes people poorly and in some cases, will kill them. Continue vaccinations as quickly as possible for everyone else. Over time it’s clear the virus will then lessen and hospitals will be able to cope etc.

For outbound travel, We have a massive death toll / hospitalisation and case rate. Other Countries in the world are a lot safer! The cases certainly won’t go up by taking people on holiday to safer places than their own towns!

Definitely want to get away somewhere sunny this year- we did the staycation thing last year.

I dont think there should be travel abroad for a while, now we've got the vaccines I'm hopeful they will make a big difference then can look to opening up travel again. I have a disney world trip booked for end of May this year, it was originally booked with Thomas Cook then went with Tui after they went bust, then the virus hit and we moved it from April to June then from June to this year lol each time the price went up!. I have tried speaking to them but they say currently it's still going ahead. I hope that changes and they cancel it. I think the states are just a mess as it is and we are back in lockdown. We couldn't get covid related insurence either so not sure what would happen if we tested positive before departing money wise. It was clearly a doomed holiday from the start lol

Well glad that you do not make these decisions. What makes you think you will get a Covid abroad and not here if places are not in lockdown?

[quote BQueen]@RainingBatsAndFrogs but the virus is here now, it’s way too late to think about closing the borders for our own benefit because it’s spreading amongst the people who live here. We’d only be protecting other countries at this point.[/quote]
This particular version of the virus is here now. Viruses mutate, just like all organisms, and any mutation that makes the organism more successful in replicating its genetic code than earlier versions will out compete its rivals. There were at least 23 slightly different strains known even before our own new version caused the Dover-Calais border to close just before Christmas. Although there doesn't seem any reason to suspect that any of the known variants will be able to bypass the vaccines that are now being rolled out here and around the world, whatever we can do to slow the spread of new versions to give time to research and find effective solutions is worth doing.

I don't want to see holiday travel disappear - but I do think we need to re-adjust our expectations about what it costs.

And what about those of us who live overseas and haven’t seen family in a year? Don’t we count?

My dc was 2 when she last saw her gps and will be nearly 4 by the end of this lockdown.

No, two already booked for later in 2021. I feel that travel is essential for me. Each to their own.

Obviously, if we are told not to travel I will follow that instruction, but when things open up again I would be devastated if travel was not included.

So many people I see are wanting foreign holidays to return but don't want anyone to be allowed to travel to UK. I'm all for banning foreign holidays if it means we keep our borders shut also.

I think holidays abroad should be cancelled till we get out of this.
But it will not happen. People will be encouraged to go and spend.
We will get all sorts of variants all mixed together. And then BJ will delay any measures till past last minute.
We have spoken between us, and our family is staying in UK this year. If they open things up, we will book something in UK. And that will be it.

@CruCru

Problem is, how do you define a “holiday abroad”? A Dutch friend usually goes back to Holland for a couple of weeks twice a year - I would be torn between defining that as a holiday or visiting family.

Removing the ability to go abroad means a lot of people would not see their families. Would this ban be indefinite or would it stop after a while?

This.

I'd vote to keep borders closed. We could import another new variant from overseas all too easily. We need a bit of respite from these cycles of out of control infection. Let everyone travel in 2022.

@QueenOfLabradors

I don't want to see holiday travel disappear - but I do think we need to re-adjust our expectations about what it costs.

Feels weird quoting myself... But the best way to expand on my comment! Medium/long distance holiday travel had become something that is really cheap in comparative terms to fifty years ago. And I appreciate that many countries with gorgeous scenery and climate have re-jigged their economies to accommodate cash rich but sunshine poor tourists! But it was never going to be sustainable to keep the old version of mass tourism going, climate change was always going to bite us on the bum even if Covid hadn't done it first. We all need to think of travel as something special to be saved up for and appreciated properly, rather than something to be purchased a couple of times a year for about the same price as a new telly.