Uncertainty Looms Over Seamless EU-UK Tourism as Final Brexit Nears
Skift Take
The lack of clarity surrounding EU-UK travel regulations in 2021 is causing concern among European Union destinations as well as tourism service providers. But the biggest deterrent to consumer confidence could be the continued lack of consensus on travel health protocols.
This month, just four weeks shy of the final Brexit, the UK and the U.S. signed a new bilateral open skies agreement to ensure flights between the two countries would continue as of January 1, 2021, without “interruption due to regulatory uncertainty” when European Union laws stop applying to the UK.
But uncertainty is exactly what European destinations are dealing with in the absence of clear guidance on how tourism will operate seamlessly between the UK and the EU starting in the new year.
“The lack of information we have so far is agonizing,” Luís Araújo, president of Visit Portugal and new president of the European Travel Commission, said at a recent webinar hosted by the European Tourism Association, discussing the impact of Brexit on travel between the UK and the EU.
