The British Government has once more relaxed since Friday the restrictions for people vaccinated with the full schedule – from two doses – eliminating the obligation to do a PCR before entering the United Kingdom and the 8-day home quarantine. From today, travelers should only have an antigen test within 48 hours of returning to Britain, and if a PCR is positive. The measure, taken under pressure from the British tourist industry, and following verifying that the restrictions have not stopped the contagion by omicron, has been received with satisfaction by tour operators and airlines. Airlines such as Jet2.com, which connects the Costa Blanca with 10 cities in the United Kingdom, assure that reservations have been reactivated up to 150% (they started almost from zero) in the last 24 hours following having been confirmed from four in the morning of Friday the lifting of restrictions. Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com, owned by the tour operator Jetholidays, the main source of tourists to the Costa Blanca, is optimistic and criticizes that the measures to contain the omicron have served nothing more than to accelerate the crisis in the tourism sector.
The tourism sector of the Costa Blanca has received, for its part, with caution but also hope the lifting of the restrictions of the Boris Johnson Executive. If they had effect, the province might receive 45,000 British tourists a week, a figure that occurred in January 2020, two months before the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. Benidorm would be the great beneficiary with 11,000 tourists staying every week, 45% of all customers, according to data from Hosbec. “With this measure we see a change of mentality in the Government of the United Kingdom. They have lifted restrictions when in previous waves they were the strictest. They too are neck-deep in the water, and they depend a lot on airplane wings. The Christmas campaign has been very discreet, we hope that this measure will boost sales in the coming days. Especially reservations for the spring and summer ”, underlines Toni Mayor, president of the Hosbec hotel association. English tourism is basic for Benidorm but also for other cities with a large hotel plant such as Alicante, with which the tour operator Jetholidays also works, especially on weekends.
Only 20% of English tourism has returned
The province of Alicante has lost 80% of tourists from the United Kingdom in almost two years compared to 2019. Between January and November of this year, a total of 1,259,079 British passengers passed through the terminal, for 5.9 million who did so in the same period of 2019. A figure that in the absence of knowing the data for December will not vary much upwards and the total will be a little higher than that of 2020, almost a blank year, when 1 , 2 million tourists from Great Britain. Very hard figures due to the fact that the British tourist market represents 40% of the foreign total in the province.
Offers
The company launched yesterday uSpecial offers for those passengers who book their flights or complete vacation packages before January 18 and the result has been an overwhelming increase of more than double the reserves to Spain compared to the previous 24 hours, returning to presenting figures at levels before the start of the pandemic.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, stresses that “it has become clear that travel restrictions have done nothing to prevent the spread of the omicron variant, so this represents the end of disproportionate measures and also useless. This is what many of our customers were eager to hear and the increase in bookings to Spain is a clear demonstration that the desire for a well-deserved relaxation and fun are higher than ever. Heapy asserts that «we start 2022 with very good feelings and we hope that it is only the first of many good news also for our destinations in Spain.
Jet2.com maintains this January five weekly connections in each direction with Birmingham and Manchester, four Leeds, three with East Midlans and Newcastle and two with Glasgow Edinburgh. Destinations to which those of Ryanair, Easyjet and British Airways are added.
Quarantine for positive cases
As of Tuesday, people without symptoms who test positive for covid with an antigen test will not have to confirm the result with a PCR, although they will still have to be quarantined. This implies that the isolation period for asymptomatic patients is speeded up, which used to begin when the result was confirmed by PCR and will now begin with the first positive, which will allow people to return to work or school earlier. At the same time, tests, which have been in short supply in recent days, are reserved for the people who need them most and essential workers.
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