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?

"Given how many don’t follow the actual laws why would they follow recommendations?"
How many don't follow the laws @IceCreamAndCandyfloss? Are you basing this statement on a study or simply posting on the basis of anecdotal evidence and what you've seen in the papers? As I understand, conformity has actually been very high.

"I will just focus on your first sentence. No, it wasn’t foreign travel. It was the inability of the authorities to make sure people were complying with quarantines properly".
Well if people had stayed at home in the first place they wouldn't have needed to quarantine. And if they are allowed abroad this year they still won't quarantine; the authorities will still be relatively powerless regarding enforcement.

@Wellbythebloodyhell
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

Absolutely agree! Same here... two overseas holidays cancelled for us this year, one to visit my Dad in Cyprus who we’ve not seen for 3 years.. so we’ve bought a small pool & just hope the weather will be decent enough to bring the Mediterranean to us .. UK holidays this year are ridiculously priced (understandably)

I'm curious about these statements flying around that 'people won't quarantine'. My OH and I were in Costa Rica when everything kicked off in March 2020. We had to come home early and we put ourselves into voluntary quarantine for 2 weeks when we got home. At the time there was no requirement to quarantine but we arranged for my daughter to deliver a food shop to our home before we arrived back and then we didn't go out anywhere or see anyone for 2 weeks.

If we are able to go on our postponed holiday to the Greek Islands this July we will happily and willingly complete our tests and our 10 day quarantine period. I think you'll find most people are sensible and law-abiding and will do what is required.

If for example you're talking about someone self employed though 99victoria who can't wfh then how will they be able to afford to quarantine? I agree that most people who can would be willing to though

Some will go but some won’t. All my friends have cancelled to next year as it just seems like way to much hassle and too much cost, particularly with children.

They can discourage all they want, but as I haven’t seen my family in Spain for 15 months now I won’t be listening.

And we will happily pay for the required tests and do any required quarantine. Both my parents have been fairly seriously ill over the past year (not with covid) and I may never see them again if we don’t go soon. They’ve never met one of their grandchildren.

@Spectrumofhumanlife

They can discourage all they want, but as I haven’t seen my family in Spain for 15 months now I won’t be listening.

Same here.

I'm not booking any abroad holidays this year as I would worry in case I had to quarantine when I came home

I have a foreign holiday booked (to Turkey).

I booked it in 2019 and it was cancelled last year so bought forward to this year.

The issue will be if we are discouraged to go, but not told we cant. Holiday companies may run the holidays anyway. I paid £3k for a holiday and worked extra shifts to pay for it. That leaves me in a dilemma of going or losing the money, and I know which one I will pick. If we don't have to quarantine we will be going.

Its the governments way of not taking any of the blame.

Like last summer, people are discouraged from going to the beach, so people went and if course it wasnt the governments fault.

I'm fully vaccinated and I will be off like a shot abroad given the chance.

@Neonprint

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 very much disagree with this. The public has on the whole behaved exactly as required. Public adherence to lockdown restrictions has been far higher than expected. The research showed when people didn't adhere it was most likely to be because they felt unable to due to financial need.

Thousands volunteered to support various initiatives, far more than could be utilized. We have all these vaccines because thousands of people volunteered for trials, medical staff volunteered to be redeployed to covid wards, school staff gave up leave to look after keyworker children, people have been phenomenal.

@StapMe What is your source for "holidays were contributory to the upswing in infection rates"

@StapMe

"I will just focus on your first sentence. No, it wasn’t foreign travel. It was the inability of the authorities to make sure people were complying with quarantines properly". Well if people had stayed at home in the first place they wouldn't have needed to quarantine. And if they are allowed abroad this year they still won't quarantine; the authorities will still be relatively powerless regarding enforcement.

Lots of people couldn't stay at home, lots of people had to go out to work and put themselves at risk. Biggest barrier to people quarantine when needed was loss of income, government knew this but still left large sections of the population without income if they didn't work.

I personally can't be bothered anymore with holidays abroad - I like travelling but don't want to waste my money and time given that the potential for all kinds of hassle is still very much there. So I don't even need to be discouraged particularly - I am already discouraged by everything that's going on!

I miss not seeing my parents though, so as soon as it becomes possible and reasonably hassle-free - I will travel abroad (or they will) so that we can see each other. Not sure about this summer tbh, will see.

Exactly @wonderstuff Im sick of seeing peoples sacrifices being shat on.

The UK needs to agree if a country is red then its red in all 4 parts of the UK.
I don't want ppl flying into England where its not red then driving to another part of the UK and skipping quarantine.

We have certainly been discouraged on going abroad from Scotland . Frankly I don't think it would kill ppl to miss this year.
All you need is a plane full of ppl with a person carrying a mutation on board.

I will just focus on your first sentence. No, it wasn’t foreign travel. It was the inability of the authorities to make sure people were complying with quarantines properly. Let’s stop blaming all of this on those who did nothing illegal, nothing irresponsible. People came back from holidays and went straight into shops and schools, if they’d been properly checked like they do now, the damage would have been reduced. And like you say, the winter surge might have happened either way.

EileenGC So you're saying we can't blame the travellers for the facts they a.had a holiday abroad, and b. didn't isolate on their return - but we should instead shift that blame to the Government instead for not checking on them? Effectively, are you suggesting these travellers have no self-responsibility and shouldn't be trusted whatsoever?

IMO, if anyone does travel - and until vaccination levels are higher, I'm not sure they should - they should isolate for 14 days on their return, preferably in a facility set aside for that purpose. (Hotels or purpose-built.)

I think I’m in the minority but i truly think that international travel should continue to be banned this year. The UK is in such a strong position at the moment, but it has been hell getting here. We don’t know the impact of variants on the effectiveness of the vaccine. I personally don’t want to give up all the gains we have right now for the sake of spending a week on a beach, and then have the situation where variants are brought intk the country, the vaccines aren’t working and we are back to square one and back to lockdowns in the winter. Complete and utter ridiculous and the height of selfishness. But it’s what will happen because the people in this country are generally very selfish and only think of themselves.

I moved my summer 2020 to this summer and have moved it again to next year (sucking up the amendment fee). I’d it was just DH and I we’d still go but I can not face the hassle of tests/masks/SD etc with young children. I agree with a poster upthread that it isn’t the holiday per se, it’s the poor organisation in airports, quarantine checks and the like.

We really do need to sort out the airports, with or without Covid. I think the chaos is deliberate to try to force people into paying for extras like fast track everything.

Plus there was absolutely no monitoring last year. Surely with the electronic passport checks we should know who has passed through the airport and be able to follow up. Random checks for example.

We went to Iceland last summer. Everything was like clockwork in Reykjavik but back to queues in the UK.

People I've watched jet abroad the past 12 months:

Stanley Johnson
Carrie Symonds
Influencers (to "work" in Dubai)
Charles and Camilla
Aussie cricket players
Americas Cup sailors
...and pretty much any half pro sports person
Actors
Musicians
Even Captain Sir Tom Moore

Yes I'll be taking a fucking hol abroad. Multiple in fact.

Yep I was just thinking this

There’s a couple of things that might slow it - mostly cost of PCR are needed. Isolation at home won’t do as much imo

Airports need to get better at crowds though otherwise the thought of a day waiting with young dc isn’t that great