Local travel agents and tour operators have called on the Stormont Executive to provide clear guidelines for travel following the conflicting updated advice released this week.
A ‘green list’ of countries holidaymakers could travel to was released on July 9, giving hope to holidaymakers and a struggling travel industry. However, now the Executive has released new advice, saying they are still advising against “all but essential travel”, despite more than 50 countries having quarantine restrictions removed.
Peter McMinn, Managing Director of Travel Solutions said: “The current situation is a farce! We can only hope that changing the advice on travel was an oversight and those politicians who we trust to lead our country will address this urgently.
“I thought that when the Executive issued their ‘green’ list of countries the week before last (which mirrored England and Wales, and now Scotland) they were giving our customers the OK to travel and return without having to quarantine. Why issue a list if that was not the case?
“It now appears that whilst the Executive issued the list – they failed to relax the ‘no non essential travel’ rule, in line with the FCO guidance change.”
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has put exceptions in place for its advice for countries deemed low-risk – which includes countries on the so-called Stormont ‘green list. These include popular holiday destinations such as France, Spain and Italy.
Trevor Ardies, Owner and Manager at Rosetta Travel said: “We understood from the UK Foreign Office advice published on July 3, that the UK (as a whole) lifted restrictions to travel to the list of exempted countries that included holiday destinations such as Spain, Italy and France so we had been happily selling away.
“If Stormont disagreed with UK Foreign office policy, they should have made that clear on July 3. Our elected MLAs appear to have been too busy with other politics around that time to bring clarity. We’re so glad to see the Irish Government have now put Italy on their safe list as it is such a strong seller.”
DUP MP Sammy Wilson said: “Clearly there’s low risk because you don’t need to quarantine, yet we’re being told we shouldn’t go anyway. In the face of that chaos, how are airports, travel agents and families meant to plan?
“The minister must urgently clarify if the Executive’s advice prevents people from going on holiday, despite his announcement that people can fly to over 50 countries without quarantine. If he is indeed going down the route of restricting people’s freedom’s further, then he must explain how this will be enforced and how his department will compensate those who have been affected by a poorly thought-out announcement made less than two weeks ago.”
Sandra Corkin, Managing Director of Oasis Travel, said: “People want clarity. They want to know why it’s different here than it is on the mainland.
“Why are the holiday flights going and they’re not asking you to quarantine, and yet they’re advising against it. Confusing doesn’t come close to it.”
Terry Murphy, Chairman of Terra Travel said: “The expression ‘only in Ireland’ springs to mind. As if the travel trade didn’t have enough problems trying to survive in the current crisis, we are now lumbered with this crazy scenario. Firstly we got the good news that air bridges were agreed allowing Northern Ireland citizens to travel abroad to many of the most popular tourist destinations without having to quarantine on their return. Then we discover that the instructions from the Northern Ireland Executive (on their website) advises citizens to avoid all but essential travel. It’s a bit like scoring a goal in football but having it overruled by VAR!
“There seemed to be a hint from some informed sources that they had simply forgotten to remove the offending message from the website, but the sooner the situation is clarified, the sooner the general public will be in a better position to decide on their future travel arrangements and travel agents will be able to stop pulling their hair out (or what’s left of it ).”
Hazel Simpson of Limavady Travel said: “The travel industry needs Stormont to provide accurate advice on travel to the green list areas. We are trying to help people make travel plans for summer 2020 but incorrect advice from our leaders is creating a barrier to sales”
