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'Vaccine passports offer the best way out of this mess'

"The UK Government should also be spearheading an international campaign to establish a worldwide vaccine passport." - Getty
"The UK Government should also be spearheading an international campaign to establish a worldwide vaccine passport." - Getty

After a truly disastrous year for the travel industry, the outlook for 2021 appears just as bleak. Not only are Britons back under house arrest, with all holidays banned until at least the spring, but harsh new restrictions await post-lockdown travellers. From this week, all arrivals to the UK must present evidence of a negative Covid test – and quarantine for up to 10 days. Unless the restrictions are relaxed, millions of Britons – such as those unable to work from home – will simply be unable to leave the country.

Furthermore, we don’t even know which nations will be welcoming us. As things stand, only a clutch of Caribbean islands, and a few other long-haul countries, are open to British travellers. Nowhere in Europe is a feasible holiday option.

Yet Jonny Bealby, founder of adventure travel specialist Wild Frontiers, is feeling cautiously optimistic – and believes there’s a clear path back to normal.

“Vaccine passports offer the best way out of this mess,” he says. “As the first country to roll out the vaccine, the UK Government should also be spearheading an international campaign to establish a worldwide vaccine passport.”

The idea will have its critics, and some fear the concept will open the door to coercion and discrimination, but Bealby believes it shouldn’t preclude those who haven’t had the jab from travel altogether.

“Those who have been vaccinated could travel more freely between countries that accept it, but obviously you’d need a secondary option for those who haven’t – such as testing. It’s not a new thing – for years some destinations have required you to get inoculated against certain diseases, such as yellow fever, before you visit.

“I see this as the best solution to get us back to some sort of normality. Once this happens, I actually feel very positive about the future.”

Wild Frontiers made its name offering tours to places few other operators dare to venture, from Afghanistan to the Congo, but travel restrictions forced it to rethink its offering in 2020. Alongside its Hindu Kush Adventure and its Persian Explorer, you’ll now find itineraries in less exotic locales, from the hills of Catalonia to Italy’s Apennine Mountains.

Holidays in Catalonia now sit alongside far-flung adventures - Getty
Holidays in Catalonia now sit alongside far-flung adventures - Getty

“It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time – offer the same off-the-beaten-track trips but closer to home,” explains Bealby. “Covid just gave me the perfect opportunity. It meant we could offer something last year, when trips to Europe became possible, even if it was only a fraction of what we usually do. In a typical September, we run in the region of 30 group tours. This time around it was just four. But it kept us going, mentally as much as financially. When you’re constantly refunding and rearranging cancelled holidays, it’s hard to maintain your enthusiasm.”

As in 2020, Bealby believes that European holidays will be the first to return this year – and says the rollout of the vaccine is already seeing bookings pick up.

“We’ll probably see a kind of a seeping out from Britain, with Europe opening up first in good time for summer. By the autumn I think more long-haul options will be available, such as India, Thailand and Vietnam.

“We saw a spike in bookings when the vaccine started happening, but the new lockdown kind of knocked that on the head. However, we’re just again starting to see hits on the website go up, as well as enquiries and bookings. It’s a trickle, when usually in January it would be a flood, but it’s something.”

Bealby says the new European tours are proving popular, along with its classic Silk Road trips, but believes that costly and logistically tricky testing requirements are encouraging most people to stick to single-country itineraries.

“When things turn around it’s going to be dramatic,” he adds. “People are desperate to travel as soon as they can – there really is a massive pent-up demand. And there will be a sort of golden travel period, just after things start opening up but before the whole world starts travelling again, when you’ll have some of the world’s best destinations largely to yourself.”

Bealby’s optimism is dependent, of course, on an easing of the travel rules in the coming weeks and months.

He says: “I do actually welcome Friday evening’s announcement to close all travel corridors. A total lockdown on travel now – while the mass inoculation programme is being rolled out – does make sense, so when we do open up again we can do so with some confidence that no more lockdowns will be needed.

“After that, however, the FCDO should drop its blanket advice against all but essential travel – which means people struggle to find adequate insurance, and ditch the quarantine requirement. If you are getting tested before you go on holiday, and again before you come back, why must you self-isolate too? At times I wonder if they care about the travel industry at all.”

Vaccine passports would help to further ease restrictions, says Bealby, who also asks why those who have tested positive for Covid cannot be given more freedom. “We’re told that getting infected is just as good as a vaccine, immunity wise, and America has just brought in a PCR test requirement for arrivals which you can bypass if you’ve had Covid. So why hasn’t the UK done that?”

One thing is clear, however. If the rules aren’t substantially relaxed, the impact will be felt both here and abroad.

“A lot of companies will be surviving now thanks to the furlough scheme, hanging on in the hope that travel gets going. If it doesn't, and furlough ends, we’ll see lots going under.

“Beyond Britain, the Government needs to think about the millions of people in developing countries that make a living thanks to tourism. And in Africa the lack of visitors has had a devastating impact in terms of poaching and conservation. I know the Government needs to do something, and it’s a nightmare situation, but it really can’t underestimate the importance of travel.”