Summer holidays abroad?

[TheRedBalloon]

I've just been reading that various Sage members have said international travel is unlikely this Summer.
We booked our holiday for the end of July to the Canaries (booked it last Summer.) Just wondering has anyone else booked for abroad and still expects to go, or is it more likely to be cancelled? DH and I have both had our first jabs and will have had both in May/June. We booked through TUI so I know we'll get a refund but the thought of going away has kept me going through lockdown!

(I know this is trivial compared with the illnesses / deaths due to the pandemic)

years ago vaccination was the norm for traveling by plane via many destinations - even though the diseases weren't common in the destination country
ie we travelled to Australia when I was a kid & although it was a direct flight we had fuel stops etc on route & those countries were considered a disease risk even though we never left the airport. We has vax for Cholera, typhoid/paratyphoid, & yellow fever & re vaxed for polio (& the side effects were dire fluey & temperature)
I think we will have to accept vaccination as a matter of course again a month or so before travel. I expect dc will have to be tested (& adults too) just before travel in both directions. It will become the new normal

Yeah it’s here

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-greece-travel-corridor-brought-in-a-large-amount-of-virus-say-experts-12250258

I hope if they do allow holidays abroad that they learn lessons from last year re: people quarantining properly and putting countries on the red list earlier when rates go up.

Even with negative tests, I feel everyone from everywhere should be quarantining on return, and random checks should be made to make sure they are. So many people I know didn’t do this last year and were out and about. People should provide evidence of where they are quarantining and how they will get there avoiding public transport. Once there, no other household members should be able to go out or to and from work. Hotel quarantine should be available to those who cannot do this. Massive fines should be in place for those who don’t comply. This should keep out new variants.

[quote May17th]@Lentillover1900 they would go bust and it’s not a travel agents place to start saying to customers don’t book your holidays until after 10th September. Can you imagine how customers would be put off. I feel for them as it would mean and is their job at stake.[/quote]
She is offering a full Covid money back guarantee or move at no extra cost.
If people didnt book with her they would book with someone else

first its not peer reviewed yet
second the reason is tilted because Greece wasn't put on the banned travel list so the comparison with Spain & Italy who had only little lower percentage wise & WERE put on the banned list isn't giving a clear or accurate figure
Its more about the arbitrary travel corridors than increased disease incidence in Greece

[quote ArseInTheCoOpWindow]Yeah it’s here

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-greece-travel-corridor-brought-in-a-large-amount-of-virus-say-experts-12250258[/quote]
You must not have read your own link. Even a very cursory reading of that article makes it obvious that it isn't saying what you claim it is saying.

"The previously unreported analysis, which was conducted by PHE and the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, revealed that Greece was the largest source of imported infections between June and September, making up 21% of new cases, compared with 16% for Croatia and 14% for Spain."

It says that Greece was the source of a large number of 'imported infections'. That is not at all the same thing as saying that "Holidaymakers from Greece were responsible for 20% of cases last summer/ autumn."

Unless you have another source which says that every single case in Britain last autumn was from foreign travel, and 0% were local?

It’s the pits to go to Cornwall. I have relatives there and it’s a complete rip off. The locals don’t want tourists, they look down on them but they will ‘allow’ them to come for the right price of course. There are better places or save your money and go somewhere special overseas when we can.

Wrong link. This one

www.itv.com/news/2021-03-19/covid-holidays-to-greece-spain-and-croatia-brought-in-over-half-of-virus-cases-last-summer

@TheRedBalloon

Will the govt announce it on 12 April? I'd just rather know for sure-we haven't had a holiday abroad since 2019 😭

So you missed one year? But judging by your wording had at least one U.K. holiday? Can’t find a lot of sympathy for the tears to be honest. And I bloody love travelling.

We need to go to the ME at some point soon. DH worked there for 5 years and came home just before Covid hit. His clients/business is out there and at the moment he is doing it remotely but needs to go back to see them face to face. We usually go with him so in a normal year we would go at least twice. Yet because it’s on the Red List (I still don’t get why though as Dubai’s Vaccine programme is going well-all DH’s friends are much younger than him have all been vaccinated).

So yes we would love to go for a holiday but it’s way more than that, without travel then DH will lose all his clients who he has worked with for years.

[quote ArseInTheCoOpWindow]Wrong link. This one

www.itv.com/news/2021-03-19/covid-holidays-to-greece-spain-and-croatia-brought-in-over-half-of-virus-cases-last-summer[/quote]
FFS did you not even bother to read the headline?

"Covid: Holidays to Greece, Spain and Croatia brought in 'over half of imported virus cases' last summer"

There's that word again. Imported. In big black letters. Very first thing you see. Just because you're desperate to blame travel, it doesn't mean it's true.

I think holidays will be allowed from around July (think May is too optimistic), but full vaccination or tests to get into countries and back into the UK will be needed. It’s going to be expensive for most people

[quote Totallyfedup1979]@MarshaBradyo

Why would we be worried about ‘possible’ variants that don’t exist at the moment?
Perhaps we should lockdown permanently to avoid possible other diseases that also don’t exist?

So no, I don’t think our position has changed. I think to prevent freedom due to ‘potential’ issues is ridiculous.[/quote]
No it not possible ones they exist already

SA variant is more prevalent in Europe than U.K. and nee so called Brittany variant

The latter doesn’t show up on PCR so not much data

The objective is to get as many vaccines done before allowing SA to go up because AZ is less effective to it

If you have read otherwise I’m interested

Doesn’t import mean to bring into a country?

What’s the difference?

My son lost out on a trip to Turkey last year so really wants to go to Greece this year for his 18th. But very unlikely and he won't be booking anything for the time being.
I promised my daughter (and son) a trip to Spain for after her GCSEs as she missed out on two school trips last year: Prague and Amsterdam. Guess it will be next year now.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Doesn’t import mean to bring into a country?

What’s the difference?

Not sure if you're just being disingenuous but this was the claim you made.

"Holidaymakers from Greece were responsible for 20% of cases last summer/ autumn."

You said that 1 in 5 of all cases last autumn could be traced back to holidaymakers from Greece. You didn't say 1 in 5 of cases imported from abroad, which is a completely different argument. That a high proportion of imported cases came from a popular tourist destination is neither here nor there really, and a much less dramatic than suggesting "Holidaymakers from Greece were responsible for 20% of cases last summer/ autumn", as you claimed above.

@Thewiseoneincognito

Please tell me no one here was foolish enough to book a trip abroad for this year? Europe’s third wave has started and by the time that’s calming down ours will just be starting up too. Although by summer we should have more data on the strength of the vaccines and how effective they are in preparation for the fourth wave in the late autumn early winter.

Well, I'm sure you'll be chortling merrily at those of us whose family holiday abroad would have meant visiting parents who we've not seen for months or even years, when that is cancelled and we can't even get a static caravan because the prices have shot up to levels unaffordable to average folks. You sound like you'll really enjoy that.

My post below is why I think the situation is being discussed as it is currently

But I know that it’s fast moving atm and what is happening in Europe can change by (late) summer

Read the headline 🥱

The whole thing is about cases transmitted from abroad during foreign travel last summer, the largest amount from Greece.

If you interpret it differently then that’s your opinion. However, I read it as it is.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Doesn’t import mean to bring into a country?

What’s the difference?

The very important difference is that there would have been many, many more cases which were not imported.

Say there were 100 UK infections (just to keep it simple)
90 of those infections originated in the UK
10 infections were brought back by travellers i.e imported
2 of the imported infections were from Greece.
2 is 20% of 10.

20% of imported infections were from Greece
Infections from Greece were 2% of the total infections.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

Read the headline 🥱

The whole thing is about cases transmitted from abroad during foreign travel last summer, the largest amount from Greece.

If you interpret it differently then that’s your opinion. However, I read it as it is.

I'm not sure there's any point discussing this with you anymore, because either you genuinely don't understand the very important difference between imported cases and total cases, or for some reason you're just refusing to believe you were wrong.

@Thewiseoneincognito - so patronising!

I have booked a holiday for the end of May and a trip to see my family abroad in summer. I am prepared to do the covid tests and pay ransom money of £210 per person on return to the UK. I use my common sense and stopped listening to what some SAGE advisers or corrupt politicians with vested interests in this sh@tshow tell me what I am allowed and not allowed to do.

If you that scared and prepared to waste another year of your life, stay home and don't judge others.

I think it's one expert who has been quoted across papers. Rightly or wrongly the government has not always listened to the advice from the scientists. I'd say it's too soon to say at present given the current situation across much of Europe. Holidays abroad in May are looking less likely, but by the summer who knows? There's a great will among governments to support the travel & hospitality industries and get the economy moving.

[quote Bored2death2020]@Thewiseoneincognito - so patronising!

I have booked a holiday for the end of May and a trip to see my family abroad in summer. I am prepared to do the covid tests and pay ransom money of £210 per person on return to the UK. I use my common sense and stopped listening to what some SAGE advisers or corrupt politicians with vested interests in this sh@tshow tell me what I am allowed and not allowed to do.

If you that scared and prepared to waste another year of your life, stay home and don't judge others.[/quote]
Patronising or realistic?

I’m just going to 🤐 keep my judgment to myself.

😂

@MarshaBradyo

There are always variants. There are variants of flu, the common cold and now Covid.

How long would you like us to be held prisoner in the UK for? Eternity perhaps?

Europe is having problems now, but have plenty of time before the summer to lower their numbers and improve their vaccine programme. It took us just a few months didn’t it.

I personally have plans to go long haul to the US, where the vaccine programme is equally successful and cases are looking good. I am also in the fortunate position where I can spend a few weeks on another country en-route if necessary.

I think by July, like it or not, some holidays will be viable - threat of variants or not - and people like myself will be more than happy to take those holidays.

You’re welcome to have a different opinion which I totally disagree with. Just as I disagreed with naysayers last year who said that foreign travel wouldn’t happen.