I don't think 'discouraging' people from taking holidays abroad will work, do you?

[Tuesdaysintheazores]

If the government lift restrictions on holidays abroad people will go on them. They're either allowed or they're not, I don't think the government can discourage people can they?

It didn’t work last summer, so no

Last year I think people were more wary of the virus as well, where now a lot more have been vaccinated and have also had enough of all the sacrifices, so if they are allowed then people will go

No, it won't. And with the vast majority of the population being able to get at least one vaccine (and many two) beforehand, why should it? This year is FAR safer than last.

Yeah I agree. If its not a good idea it shouldn't be allowed. There's very little evidence both within the pandemic and outside of it that people will act in a way which is considerate of others. Basically people will make decisions based on their own needs and interests not on the wider population's needs.

I don't know if the government should have an opinion, as it implies responsibility.

It's right for the government to try to facilitate international travel to allow people living, studying or working here (or vice versa) who have not been able to get home to family in a long while, to do so.

The problem comes when people take advantage of the open borders to go on holidays that may then go on to be cancelled without compensation, and then blame the government for not warning them.

People need to take ownership for their decisions - we know things could change very quickly, so if you choose to holiday abroad then you either take out insurance that will compensate, or accept the monetary risk, according to your own situation.

If they can prove it is in the public interest to ban foreign travel weighed up against cost to mental health of those who are desperate to see family members abroad, the loss of the air industry and potential backlash of those who have just had enough then they should make it a clear rule equal for all.

Asking people to refrain won't work. Why should some people act in the greater good when others (particularly the rich) have always been able to do as they wish due to the way in which the exceptions have been drafted?

I think I'm missing something here - has it been suggested that the government will discourage foreign holidays even once
they are allowed? I've not seen that, it makes no sense at all.

If its not a good idea it shouldn't be allowed
Exactly. You can either travel or you can't. If it's a danger to travel then it's not relevant what the purpose of it is, even though that's terrible for those who want to see family. If it is safe enough for them to open it up, then people will go - they've done the sacrifices long enough for the vaccine to be rolled out and people don't want to be stuck in this country indefinitely

Rockingmyfifties yes that's what's on news websites today, that government has been told to discourage people from taking holidays

It depends what "discourage" means. If it means implementing policies on mandatory testing, hotel quarantine etc, thereby making holidays more expensive and less accessible, then I think that will put a lot of people off. If it's just a question of saying that holidays are now allowed but we'd really rather you didn't, then that clearly won't have much of an impact.

I'm sure that there must be a multitude of ways in which the government could make foreign travel less attractive if they chose to do so. I suspect we'll end up in a situation where the rich will be free to jet off on foreign holidays while the masses will be priced out of the market.

@Tuesdaysintheazores

Rockingmyfifties yes that's what's on news websites today, that government has been told to discourage people from taking holidays

Then I agree the government needs to make a decision one way or the other. They can't allow it and discourage it at the same time else people just won't listen.

I don't think they will discourage, or encourage, but a small amount of destinations ,at least initially, seems the best way to go.

Layla Moran was on earlier saying that she didn't think it was right that on return to the UK green list and red list travellers will be in the same immigration queue . She's got a point, but it's up to the powers that be to ensure that this doesn't happen, that is not going to discourage people from going away in the first place.

If we can go then we will go - get a bit of a life back, sick of existing. Celebs and footballers have been able to go where they please, about time normal folk can do the same. If its legal then people will do it - bit like smoking, drinking, eating sugary food etc which are all 'advised' against.

I read the BBC article and tbh they couldn’t explain why going abroad in itself would be a risky activity - to a green country for example. The issue lies with those packed arrival halls at the airport, when you fly back. Which is something they simply need to sort out and then taking a plane should not be any more dangerous than taking the tube.

It’s like they’re saying ‘you should not go on holiday - not because it isn’t safe, but because we can’t be bothered to sort the airports out so it becomes safe (and time efficient) for you to queue on the way back’. As usual, they’ll keep it as chaotic as it is now, and then blame it on travellers for ‘bringing the virus back’, instead of taking responsibility for a disastrous management of yet another thing this pandemic.

I’m not interested in going abroad this year. Too many what ifs from other countries maybe wanting vaccines or testing or maybe not. Goal posts changing at last minute regarding quarantine. Mask wearing outside in some places: not for me in a hot country!

Each to their own though and it’s everyone’s individual choice to make. But if travel is allowed people will of course go.

Didn't work for me last Summer and won't do this Summer, either.

My holiday to Italy in August was cancelled by Tui 2 weeks ago as they couldnt honour the holiday due to Covid. We changed it to next summer. Will stick to this country this year. I dont fancy paying lots of money for tests and the risk of quarantine.

They can’t sort out the arrivals hall mess, because they are forcing those of us in red countries to take indirect flights back to the U.K. (because they have banned direct flights - except, weirdly for India, but anyway). So we have to fly to Holland/Greece/Serbia etc etc first and then fly to the U.K. from there. It’s not possible to separate us at arrivals as we all come off the same plane together.

And yes, I deliberately chose the word “have to” - there are many thousands of people who have no choice but to fly back and forth to the U.K. on a regular basis. But most of us are vaccinated (a fact conveniently overlooked by most of the British press which only seems intent on bigging up the success of the British vaccination campaign and ignoring most other success stories apart from Israel). And the evidence is mounting that vaccines are effective against the new strains. Even the Chinese vaccine, which many in the west seem to be snobbish about, despite the fact that it’s a whole-virus vaccine and not dependent on just the spike protein RNA.

They could at least provide proper social distancing at arrivals, and bring back all the staff on furlough so every station can be manned, and it doesn’t take 6 hours to go through border control. They could also create a digital system where all your documents, forms and test bookings are checked, so that it doesn’t take so long to process passengers.

I completely agree with you @feesh it’s not realistic to separate by countries when many arrive on connecting flights.

The thing is if those travelling do spread it around (and I say that as someone who has a trip postponed from last year I do want to go on) then the risk is taken for everyone, not just those travelling. So it's up to the government and scientists to take the decisions, they can't leave it down to individuals. Definitely need to make arrivals safe as well if they are allowing travel.

If it’s not illegal people will go. I have 2 summer trips booked that I fully intend to go on even if I am “discouraged” I have given up over a year of my life, the majority of my maternity leave and had the most basic of freedoms taken away for something which in my opinion has been an over exaggeration of risk. ( I am aware we have all made sacrifices and feel we have done more than enough and more than they expected us to do) If I want to go and have a holiday and see family abroad this summer I will be doing that. There will be people that think is selfish but I really don’t care. I think it’s selfish to expect people to still be abiding by restrictions at this point in time and ruining people’s businesses with no evidence to back up the majority of policies.

The government needs to own any decision to allow foreign travel. If they allow it but "discourage" it then that could be interpreted as a way for them to absolve themselves of responsibility if anything goes wrong. Pathetic.

If travel is legally possible, I will be on a plane.

It depends what the aim is. If it's to reduce the number of people who go abroad "a bit", yes it will work.

I wouldn't go if it's technically allowed, but advice is that it's best not to, just like I didn't gi to the pubs in the days when we were advised not to but they were still open. Obviously lots of people did, but numbers were still down.

My perspective on it is that it is a pretty huge infringement of people's rights to prevent them from leaving their own country. I think that it would be fine for the UK government to discourage foreign travel without making it illegal.

The measures regarding mandatory testing and quarantines are already very off-putting to most people and are tantamount to a policy of discouraging travel, as well as serving a risk mitigation purpose.

In my view, it's one thing to put those hoops in the way - I consider these to be reasonable temporary precautionary measures. It's quite another thing to criminalise the travel altogether - that is a truly extraordinary measure that should require the situation to be an absolute state of emergency.

The government can discourage travel by implementing quarantine or multiple costly tests rather than out right saying "don't travel "
10 days quarantine and paying for 5 people in my household to have multiple tests on return "discourage " me from travelling abroad, that coupled with the UK tourist industry massively inflating this years and next years prices mean that for many families like mine it will be the Costa del back garden again this year and possibly next