Travel changes won't give customers confidence to book

Government changes designed to help the travel industry are disappointing and are causing more confusion, according to a Stratford travel agent.

Last Wednesday Neil Basnett, from Stratford’s sole independent travel agency Holiday Inspirations, joined around 800 others from the travel industry for an event outside parliament, calling on the government to do more.

In response ministers added Malta to the green travel list and a number of others to a green-watch list of countries you can travel to, but which could be moved to the amber travel list at short notice, should infection rates change.

Mr Basnett said: “Sadly the green-watch list just makes things more confusing and it does not give customers the confidence to book holidays in those places. At the moment we are not taking bookings for countries on the amber list because the process is much more complicated, there is the potential for customers to be disappointed and of course their travel insurance isn’t valid.

“I was at Westminster last week and it was disappointing how few MPs actually came over to engage with us, there must have been about ten.

“We are still pushing for the government to offer specific sector grants to support the travel industry.”