Simon Calder’s Travel Week

Written by Simon Calder | December 08, 2024

Some say the UK lacks a strategy for international tourism. Nonsense: ministers clearly have a “zero tourism” strategy.

Why else would vaccinated visitors from low-infection Germany be treated with deep medical suspicion? While you and I can enjoy a weekend in Munich or Leipzig with no more stress than presenting proof of vaccination on arrival at the flughafen, jabbed Germans keen on a short break in Manchester or London must take multiple tests at a typical cost of €100 (£86) – quite possibly more than the cost of flights. You can't blame them for switching to Madrid or Lisbon instead.

The latest figures from data analysts Forward Keys show that the most extreme visitor restrictions in Europe have successfully kept many tourists away. The firm revealed this week how the top 20 nations performed for international arrivals in July and August compared with the summer of 2019 – the last “normal” year. While Greece had to cope with a punishing 86 per cent of 2019's arrivals, the UK was by far the most successful at deterring overseas visitors, with just 14 per cent.

Yet that zero tourism target remains some distance away. The government, though, has a plan to reduce visitors reaching these shores from one in seven of 2019 numbers to zero in seven by 2022.

Three weeks today, Boris Johnson’s team will hammer another nail in the coffin of inbound tourism.

“You will not be able to use an EU, EEA or Swiss national ID card to enter the UK from 1 October 2021,” the Home Office has warned prospective European visitors.

It's true that, fifteen years ago, identity cards from some EU nations presented a real problem for UK Border Force because they were so easily forged or altered. Since then, though, security standards have been transformed: ID cards are now just as safe as passports. But a long-standing Brexiteer demand is to be fulfilled: passports are about to be made mandatory for all arrivals.

Dunwelcoming: Caerlaverock Castle in southwest Scotland, increasingly out of reach for European visitors

The ban on identity cards will stifle demand even further. Every EU country except Ireland and Denmark issues ID cards. The identification document gets citizens in to all other European Union nations, plus Switzerland, Norway and 15 other countries.

Typically only half the populations of these countries have passports. The remainder are content with the range of destinations they can reach with an ID card, from the Indian Ocean to the Caribbean.

From the end of the month, we will close our frontiers to more than 200 million prospective European visitors; make the UK appear even more unwelcoming; and crush the hopes of the millions of British workers who depend on tourists from abroad for a living. Year zero, indeed.

Back to the future: the 1970s Front Room in the Museum of the Home

The Geffrye Museum in the Hoxton area of London has re-opened after its transformation into the Museum of the Home. A row of 300-year-old almshouses tells the story of the capital through dwellings from different eras, with recreations of home life that include a West Indian front room from the 1970s. Next weekend (18 and 19 September), the museum hosts a festival of talks, performances and music that explores home and belonging.

Deals of the week: days out in the south,

Much has been made of the low fares on the excellent new Lumo trains between London and Edinburgh – but the bizarre pricing of air fares makes even the sub-£15 one-way ticket look expensive. This weekend, Ryanair will fly you from Manchester to Pisa for £9.99 return, travelling out on 11 September and back a week later.
South Western Railway has a new “Sunday Out” rail ticket that is available for day trips of up to an hour from London Waterloo – which includes Windsor, Ascot and Box Hill. The typical saving on normal day returns is 15-20 per cent. No advance booking necessary; the website, ticket machines and booking offices should offer the fare automatically. Standard railcard discounts and GroupSave (for three to nine people travelling together) apply.

Question: If I land at Bristol airport one day, stay in a hotel overnight and fly out from Bristol the following day, do I need to book a “day two PCR test”?

Answer: Yes. Even though this post-arrival PCR is described as the “day two” test, it should in fact be called “a day of arrival or either of the two following days” test. Get it done at the airport on arrival – Bristol has a Nuffield Health testing centre. This will maximise the public health benefit, because in the highly unlikely event that you are infectious, the fact will be rapidly picked up.

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