Mike Tibbert, president of The Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA), the professional body for travel agents and the travel sector in Scotland says,

“At last, we are seeing constructive steps in restoring confidence in international travel for the fully vaccinated with today’s announcement. This is overdue, but welcome, news as even the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been calling for countries to lift their travel restrictions.

“The seemingly endless changes and updates to travel regulation have been immensely disruptive for the whole of Scotland travel sector, with devastating effect on our economy and individual businesses.

“But on this milestone day, what we need is strategic planning for the future. We need reassurance that, if new variants are discovered, we do not return to knee jerk, draconian measures to shut down international travel. The WHO has stated that international travel bans “do not provide added value and continue to contribute to the economic and social stress.”

“If we have no global strategy, the least we can do is have a four nations’ strategy to prevent us reverting to the disastrous measures of the last two years. We need to get the message out that, with the correct mitigations in place, travel is safe and that our country is open for business.

“Our members, travel agents across Scotland, anticipate a strong summer of bookings as Scots whose travel plans have been hampered or quashed by the previous restrictions, are able to return to the freedom of travel.”