Government

Travel set for sales 'boom' and foreign sec under fire over Aus trip

Travel firms expect a strong bounce back this summer as confidence returns, while Liz Truss has been criticised for flying privately to Australia

Tourism minister urges councils to support agencies with ARG cash

Nigel Huddleston told Grapevine Travel boss Rod Gethins that he had asked the independent’s local council to ‘look favourably’ on agencies when it came to allocating Additional Restrictions Grant monies

Call to scrap passenger locator forms as half-term prices 'soar'

Airport boss says ’complex form should go, while February half-term holiday prices are in the spotlight

Blanket travel restrictions 'do more harm than good' – UNWTO

Secretary-general Zurab Pololikashvili described blanket travel restrictions as ’simply counterproductive’

Abta urges Scottish travel trade to lobby for more support

Association has created a template letter for agents and operators to send to their MSPs to support Abta’s push for a slice of Omicron support cash

Willie Walsh: World should follow's UK lead on testing

Iata chief hails UK government decision to roll back Omicron travel rules which he said have had ’little impact on the spread of Covid-19’

Spain half-term 'chaos' and PM braces for parties report

Covid rules could stop families heading to Spain for February half-term as travel bookings soar, while Boris Johnson braces for the findings of Sue Gray’s report

Wales and Northern Ireland to ease travel and testing rules

Commitments by Welsh government and Northern Ireland executive will see all four UK nations align with the new travel and testing rules detailed by Grant Shapps on Monday

Spain could ban single-jabbed British children – reports

Move would effectively bar up to 2.5 million British children aged 12 to 15 from the country

Watchdog tells PCR firm to refund consumers

CMA tells PCR test firm to get its house in order following complaints

Vaccine pass gap for kids could hit half-term breaks

Proof of immunity to Covid-19 from a previous infection will only be available to those who confirmed that infection through an NHS PCR test, not a lateral flow test

VisitBritain launches £10m international marketing campaign

Chief Sally Balcombe said ’the priority is to build back demand for Britain and visitor spending as quickly as possible’

Advantage: 'Testing overhaul will stimulate travel even further'

Chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said said the UK’s testing regime for travel was the ’bane’ of the industry’s life

Half-term holidays joy boost and Shapps's PLF rant

Tuesday’s headlines welcome the scrapping of Day 2 tests ahead of the half-term break, while Grant Shapps has criticised his own government’s travel rules

Shapps blasts 'ridiculously complicated' passenger locator forms

Transport secretary reveals the government plans to simplify the documents

Scotland to ease travel and testing rules in line with England

Testing requirements for fully vaccinated people arriving in the country will be dropped

Relaxing of testing rules 'a landmark day for industry'

Transport select committee chair Huw Merriman said "people should feel confident to book with certainty"

New rules 'will bring the joy back to travel'

Trade hails imminent end of Day 2 testing for fully vaccinated travellers, albeit while warning the industry isn’t yet ’out of the woods’

Shapps: 'It's time to liberalise our international travel regime'

Transport secretary sets out changes ’to ensure 2022 is the year in which restrictions on travel, lockdowns and limits on people’s lives are firmly placed in the past’

Scrapping Day 2 tests 'only one piece of the jigsaw'

Trade hails government’s decision to further ease testing rules in England, but warns there is still some way to go before travel returns to normal

Lack of support for aviation 'will slam the brakes' on national recovery

’To fail to support UK aviation would be unconscionable and will slam the brakes on the long-term national recovery before it has even begun,’ says Balpa

Speakers announced for TTG Agenda 2022 seminar: 'Is travel taking off again?'

Gold Medal’s new managing director Simon Applebaum and Tui’s chief marketing officer Katie McAlister are amongst the latest speakers confirmed for the event on 1 February

Day 2 tests for fully vaccinated to be scrapped, PM confirms

The changes, announced by Boris Johnson on Monday (24 January), are reportedly due to come into effect on 11 February in time for half-term getaways

Half-term travel rules boost and PM facing 'reckoning'

Families set to benefit from Covid travel rule change, while Boris Johnson faces a crucial week in his premiership