From Saturday (18 December), UK visitors to France will need a “compelling reason” to visit the country, which does not include tourism or non-urgent business trips, although visiting family is still allowed by the new French entry regime.
Diane Palumbo, sales and marketing director at Skiworld and a board member of Seasonal Businesses in Travel (SBIT), told TTG that SBIT members had already seen a 90% drop in sales over the past week, as the Omicron variant started to spread rapidly in the UK.
“This is devastating and still there is no financial support for the travel industry from the UK government,” she said. “We need grants. I don’t understand why our government can’t take the same approaches as other European governments on supporting their travel industries. We all want to carry on trading and be in business.
“We will be contacting tens of thousands of customers in the next few days. People have booked these Christmas and New Year trips. They are emotional and upset, and some are really resigned – it’s the second or third time they have deferred their holiday.”
Palumbo added: “I understand any other country’s reaction to the surge in infections that we’ve got. My anger is that our government is doing nothing.”
Charles Owen, managing director of European Pubs Ltd and fellow SBIT spokesperson, told TTG that SBIT would hold an emergency meeting with members on Thursday (16 December) morning.
“It’s absolutely devastating,” he said. “We’ve all geared up and recruited for this winter, so this is the worst possible moment for this to happen.
“We need government to engage urgently with industry leaders about a possible support package for the industry.”
