Make sure holidays are refundable before booking, No 10 advises

Downing Street has warned Britons to make sure their holidays are refundable before booking.

The warning came as the travel industry reported a surge in bookings for summer breaks in so-called “amber list” countries like France, Spain and Greece.

Travel to these countries is legal after the latest relaxation of lockdown rules on Monday, but anyone returning to England from an amber country is required to quarantine for 10 days at home.

After days of confusion over the status of amber-list countries, Boris Johnson said yesterday that visits should be made only in “extreme circumstances”, such as the illness of a family member, and not for holidays.

But thousands of people are believed to have made bookings in the hope that their destination will be moved from the amber to green list by the time they travel, removing the requirement to quarantine.

Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson today confirmed that the next review of the traffic light system will come “three weeks from the week commencing 17 May”.

This suggests that any changes will be announced no earlier than 7 June - later than many in the travel industry were hoping.

Asked if people were wise to book holidays in the hope of their intended destination moving to the green list by the time they travel, the spokesperson said: “We will update, as I said there’s a three weekly review point and we will give people a week’s notice about those changes to the green list.”

He added: “What we’ve said from the start is we’ve encouraged people that do want to seek to book holidays further on in the year, given this global pandemic and the uncertainty around it, it’s wise to book holidays that you can get refundable or can be delayed and to speak to their travel operators when they’re doing so.”

The development came as the authorities warned they are conducting around 10,000 home checks every day to catch holiday-makers flouting the home quarantine rule.

One calculation has found that up to 54,000 passengers a day will flock to sunspots such as Spain, Greece, Italy and France, with a total of 1,300 flights scheduled to fly to amber list countries by Sunday.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps refused four times during an interview today to say whether it was “responsible or irresponsible” to holiday in amber list countries.

Of major European holiday destinations, only Portugal is currently on the government’s green list.

Asked if he was pushing for the green list to be extended, Mr Shapps replied: “Yes of course.”

Travel agents Tui told The Independent:”We want to offer our customers flexibility and choice this summer, so where borders are open and FCDO (Foreign Office) advice allows travel, we will operate to those destinations.

“We review our holiday cancellations in line with the government updates every three weeks, with the next update due in early June. We know some customers may be unsure about travelling this summer, so we’ve offered free changes 14 days before travel for anyone due to travel before the end of August.”