COVID-19 Update 10th February 2022

Prime Minister’s Announcement On Restrictions

The Prime Minister announced in parliament that the Government is planning to remove the remaining Covid-related restrictions centred on self-isolation within two weeks rather than waiting to the 24^th March. This would mean that people would only be advised to not go to work if they tested positive for Covid rather than it being a legal requirement to self-isolate.

He also announced that, when Parliament resumes on 21^st February, the Government would publish a new Government strategy for living with Covid and Officials at No.10 have indicated that there could be an update on the remaining travel rules at the same time which would certainly support international travel.

Attitudes To Travel

DfT has published the sixth wave of their survey on public attitudes to travel which will be of interest – although some caution should be exercised at the survey was conducted in September so it’s only taken four months to process this timely data. Anyway, some of the key findings are:

• • 89% said that they hadn’t flown overseas in the past 12 months
  • 85% said that they wanted information on travel restrictions and quarantine requirements
  • 29% of respondents indicated that they would consider using a plane in over a year’s time
  • 6% said that they would never fly again
  • 72% and 70% reported that they would either feel very concerned or fairly concerned if they were to use planes or cruise ships

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-travel-attitudes-study-wave-6/national-travel-attitudes-study-ntas-wave-6

International Sea Travel

DfT has published new figures on international sea travel. The figures for 2021 show that travel between the UK and Ireland was down 67% from normal last year while travel to and from mainland Europe was down 75%.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/sea-passenger-statistics-spas

Government Response On Broadband

The Government has published its response on the consultation on the provision of broadband to hard to reach places – many of which are tourism destinations. The good news is that the response recognises that the businesses that responded to the call for evidence were predominantly in the agriculture and tourism industries and that tourism can help rural economies.