Chief executive Mark Tanzer described the removal of the red list as “a sensible step” but added the government “must explain why temporary testing requirements have been retained until the first week of January”.

“With the testing measures now extending over the Christmas and New Year period, and the industry quickly approaching peak-booking season for summer 2022, travel businesses are facing a very serious situation,” he said. 

“Consumer confidence in travel has suffered a significant setback, which will outlast these restrictions. The government must acknowledge this by bringing forward grant support to help businesses through the difficult weeks ahead. 

“Almost two years into this crisis, there has still been no business support from the Treasury to address directly the impact on UK businesses of the government’s travel restrictions.”

He also called for a plan to deal with future variants.

“As part of this there should be transition arrangements for the red list – which would enable people overseas when decisions are taken to place a country on the red list to complete self-isolation at home, along with additional testing measures, to avoid costly quarantine – as well as moving away from pre-departure testing, which is the single greatest barrier to getting people travelling again." 

Abta claimed employment across the industry had halved since the beginning of the pandemic and said the volume of new bookings taken across summer and autumn 2021 was on average 28% compared to the same period in 2019.