The Association of Northern Ireland Travel Agents (ANITA) have added their voice to an industry wide call to improve COVID testing for travellers to help save future travel.
ANITA Chairperson Damian Murphy said: “On the day that the COVID vaccine is rolled out in the UK giving hope to us all that a return to normal life and not just normal travel is now in sight I want to call on the Northern Ireland executive to look at the confusion caused by the ever changing requirements for travel outside the UK.
“While the vaccine rollout is a great start for us all it will still be some time before people can travel without adhering to these new requirements. We need the information about PCR testing to be crystal clear -we need more testing centres -a rapid turnaround for tests and of course a big reduction in the cost.”
Damian now represents ANITA on the #savefuturetravel UK committee as they unite to call on all administrations to urgently look at improving the current testing for travel regime.
The Chancellor originally promised to do “whatever it takes” to support businesses and individuals through the COVID-19 crisis, but now talks about saving viable jobs. Travel is not only viable as a sector, but also vital for the economic recovery of the country – and it is critical that the Government does all it can to help businesses and protect jobs.
What travel businesses need is for people to feel confident enough to travel again, but it is the policy decisions taken by Government to manage the pandemic that have damaged confidence and weakened the market.
Addressing these issues must now be a priority for Ministers to avoid long-term damage.
A statement on the savefuturetravel.co.uk website said: “The industry needs Government to work with us to take the steps needed to put travel on a firmer footing for the winter season and into next year.”
The Save Future Travel Campaign is urging the Government to:
- Adopt a fully regionalised quarantine policy
- Introduce testing
- Provide recovery grants for SMEs and other businesses that missed out on previous support
- Review the Job Support Scheme to save travel jobs
- Grant an APD holiday covering summer 2021
