British travel agents welcome government's 'risk-based approach' to quarantine

Jonathan Smith, a spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), said the organisation welcomed the "risk-based approach" taken by the government in choosing to review blanket quarantine arrangements for UK arrivals.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "I think this is incredibly welcome news for the travel industry, which has had a very difficult time these weeks and months, and will encourage people to book and allow them to enjoy a summer holiday."

Mr Smith added: "I think what is important is the blanket Foreign Office advice does change and starts to allow travel and it is for the government to decide which countries we can go to safely."

The trade body representative said the industry expected "a surge in bookings" but predicted more travel companies were likely to go bust before a full recovery was felt.

"What is important now is that travel agents and travel operators have the opportunity to restart their businesses and the sector can start to recover because they have been having an incredibly difficult time and there have been many redundancies and firms have been unfortunately made bankrupt and that will continue to be the case for some time before we see a proper recovery," said Mr Smith.

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