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Goverment declines to say whether holidays are banned from Tier 3 areas
The government has left the travel industry and holidaymakers in the dark about whether those living under the tightest coronavirus restrictions will be allowed to travel overseas from Thursday.
The latest guidance, published on Monday evening, states that people living in Tier 3 areas of England should ‘avoid’ travelling outside their area but it goes on to say that if people ‘need to travel abroad they should follow the Foreign Office guidance for their destination’.
This doesn’t make it clear whether overseas holidays will be allowed from Tier 3 areas on Thursday but ABTA told TravelMole on Monday that it believed regulations spelling out what people can do would be published by the government later this week.
However a spokesperson for the Cabinet Office told us today that it wasn’t expecting any additional tier guidance to be published, which means the travel industry and the public will have to decide for themselves whether holidays can or should go ahead.
Do they rely on Transport Minister Grant Shapps’ statement during a Radio 4 Today interview last month that the government’s ban on non-essential travel would be lifted for everyone when the latest lockdown ends at one minute passed midnight on Wednesday, or do they assume that the latest government guidance for Tier 3 areas prohibits non-essential overseas trips?
And will tour operators refund holidaymakers from Tier 3 areas who don’t want to travel from next week, or will they stick to their usual cancellation policies?
The government’s published guidance for Tier 3 initially appeared to back up Mr Shapps’ comments, but it was later amended to state that people should avoid international travel before being changed again to remove the reference to international travel, leaving the industry in a state of confusion.
When TravelMole asked the Cabinet Office for a clear answer on whether people in Tier 3 will be allowed to go on holiday from Thursday the spokesperson merely directed us to the published guidance.
We have also asked the Department for Transport for clarification but we’re still waiting for a response.
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Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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