Coronavirus safety measures risk ‘immeasurable damage’ to economy, says travel boss
The economy faces “immeasurable” damage if the government veers too far towards medical safety measures to to protect agains the coronavirus pandemic, according to the boss of travel industry association ABTA.
Speaking on City A.M’s The City View podcast this morning, Mark Tanzer gave a grim assessment of the problems facing Britain’s travel industry.
He said that measures such as a blanket quarantine for anybody entering the UK was “ill-conceived,” and showed that the balance between medical safety and getting the economy going again “isn’t right at the moment”.
“Blanket restrictions that don’t take account of any differences between countries is an admission that we haven’t got the risk assessment or testing techniques in place to be able to come up with the right balance between medical safety and keeping the economy going,” he said.
“The damage to the economy if [the government] pursue that line for any time will be immeasurable.”
“If we don’t get the balance right… we will have a lot of companies going to the wall over the coming months.”
It comes as the industry faces the biggest crisis in its history, with global travel largely curtailed by the coronavirus outbreak.
Just last week, British Airways said it would make 12,000 staff redundant, prompting MPs to brand it a “national disgrace”.
The UK currently has a 14-day quarantine in place for anybody entering the country, but the measure has faced widespread criticism for doing more harm than good.
“Quarantine needs to be replaced by something that is more risk based and allows the airline industry and travel industry to start to breath again,” Tanzer continued.
“People don’t travel the day after they lift quarantine.
They may start booking summer travel the day after it is lifted – but if you’re not careful and they leave it too long then we will lose the whole of the summer season.
“Every day counts in this.”