Scotland is set to relax its testing rules from next month – following the blueprint set out by the UK government a week ago.
Pre-departure testing for fully vaccinated travellers arriving from non-red list countries will be scrapped with proof of vaccination.
Scotland will also align with the UK on post-arrival testing and is likely to lower its the Day 2 testing standard from PCR to lateral flow.
Reacting to the news on Friday (24 September) Dooey welcomed the decision but slammed the amount of time it had taken to be confirmed by Scottish ministers.
“There’s unlikely to be a rush to the travel agents this weekend to book for October breaks during the school holidays, as the timing means that most families will be unable to organise the time off work now to go on a family break,” she said.
“Those who did want to travel have already booked flights departing from English airports. Travel agents have also recently experienced clients who are already booked on a holiday departing from Scotland, requesting that their return flight is changed to a flight returning to England.”
She believed the benefit of the announced rule changes “won’t be immediate” but bringing regulations into line with the rest of the UK could herald “the start of recovery for the beleaguered travel sector”.
“Our outbound travel industry is an important sector for the whole Scottish economy supporting 26,000 jobs and delivering almost £1.5 billion in economic spend. Going forward, it needs support and it needs consistency,” added Dooey.
Meanwhile, Barrhead Travel president Jacqueline Dobson echoed Dooey’s support for the changes, saying the agency had always called for “a four nations approach” on travel policies between the Home Nations.
“We now turn to the UK government to urgently update the industry on the final plans for post-arrival testing to bolster customer confidence ahead of half-term,” said Dobson.
