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Some of the UK’s biggest hotels have signed a joint letter calling for the government’s two week-quarantine plan for incoming tourists to be scrapped.
Tourists who enter the UK must spend 14 days in quarantine or face a £1,000 fine. According to the BBC, over 70 holiday firms and hotels have signed the letter, and are concerned that the measures will be “bad for business”.
The letter, which was delivered to the home secretary Priti Patel and seen by the BBC, read: “The very last thing the travel industry needs is a mandatory quarantine imposed on all arriving passengers which will deter foreign visitors from coming here, deter UK visitors from travelling abroad, and most likely cause other countries to impose reciprocal quarantine requirements on British visitors.”
The letter continued: “Many people urged the government to impose quarantine regulations during the early phases of Covid-19.
“Instead, no action was taken and flights from many infected countries were allowed to land, making it easy for thousands of potentially affected passengers to spread the virus into the wider UK community.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “As the world begins to emerge from what we hope is the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, we must look to the future and protect the British public by reducing the risk of cases crossing our border.
“We continue to support businesses in the tourism sector through one of the most generous economic packages provided anywhere in the world. However, it is right that we introduce these new measures now to keep the transmission rate down and prevent a devastating second wave.”
