LONDON (Reuters) – TUI UK on Wednesday said it had cancelled holidays to the Balearics and Canary Islands until August 4 after Britain advised against all non-essential travel to the islands due to its assessment of COVID-19 risks in Spain.
The UK guidance, issued on Monday, brought advice in line with travel advice to mainland Spain. On Saturday Britain said all travellers from Spain would be subject to a 14-day quarantine due to a spike in new coronavirus cases there.
TUI UK has cancelled all holidays to mainland Spain until August 10, but criticised the blanket British policy for the whole of Spain when the outbreaks have been focussed regionally.
“We… call upon the UK Government to work closely with the travel industry and remove the ‘blunt tool’ approach to quarantine and consider the rapid introduction of regional Travel Corridors,” said Andrew Flintham, Managing Director of TUI UK and Ireland.
“The level of uncertainty and confusion created this week is damaging for business and customer confidence in travel.”
He added that customer feedback suggested people still wanted to travel on summer holidays, and the company had added seven new flights to destinations in Greece and Turkey to meet demand from those whose holidays had been cancelled.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Kate Holton and Sarah Young)
