6 2GM Tuesday July 28 2020 | the times
News
Millions of British tourists risk losing
the cost of their holidays because of
lockdowns and quarantines, experts
have warned.
Only one big travel insurance provid-
er will pay out if a trip has to be can-
celled because of a change in govern-
ment advice — but it is only available as
a current account add-on.
All other travel insurance providers
have placed exclusions on new policies,
which means that travellers are not
covered if the Foreign Office advises
against travel to a country.
Many policies will also not cover
those forced to curtail their overseas
trips because of local lockdowns, al-
though a handful now have provision
for Covid-19 medical expenses.
Travel experts have said the situation
is now so precarious that they would
advise not booking any foreign trips un-
less it was paid for with money “you can
afford to lose”.
Independent travellers are likely to
be the worst affected as their trips do
not come with any financial protection.
Airlines are not required to give pas-
sengers refunds if a flight departs as
scheduled. Hotels and car hire compa-
nies are also not required to return
money unless they are closed.
Package holidays, by contrast, are
safeguarded by EU laws that require
operators to provide refunds if the For-
eign Office changes its travel advice. A
package holiday is defined when two el-
ements, such as a flight and hotel, are
booked at the same time.
Guy Anker, of Money Saving Expert,
told The Times: “People who booked a
holiday or took out insurance after
mid-March are not going to be covered
by a local lockdown or the decision to
change travel advice.
“My advice would be, do not spend
any money at the moment that you
can’t afford to lose, or where flexibility
is not written into your airline ticket or
hotel booking.”
Consumer rights experts have previ-
ously criticised the government’s an-
nouncement of “travel corridors” for
giving holidaymakers a “false sense of
Shapps flies home from
Spain and into quarantine
Steven Swinford Deputy Political Editor
ry emergency imposition of quarantine
restrictions on Spain.
“I’ve been in constant contact with
officials and industry representatives
since I arrived. I think it’s right to get
back to work in the UK as soon as poss-
ible to help handle the situation. The
sooner I get back, the sooner I can get
through quarantine.” Mr Shapps decid-
ed to fly to Spain on Saturday morning
despite the knowledge that quarantine
measures could soon be introduced. He
decided he had no choice but to carry
on with his holiday. “He couldn’t use his
privileged position to make his own life
easier,” a friend of Mr Shapps said. “It
would have looked terrible”.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary,
convened the meeting after the joint
biosecurity committee raised concerns
about the spread of the virus across
Spain. There were spikes in 15 of the 19
regions across the country, while the in-
fection rate had overtaken Portugal
and jumped to 27.4 cases per 100,
people over a two-week period. The
number of cases in the UK, by contrast,
is about 14 per 100,000. “The figures
were terrible,” a government source
said. “We had no choice but to act.”
Alistair Osborne, page 35
Grants Shapps, the transport secretary,
will return to the UK tomorrow from
his holiday in Spain in the wake of the
introduction of blanket quarantine re-
strictions.
Mr Shapps arrived with his family in
Spain on Saturday morning, hours
before the government banned all non-
essential travel after a spike in corona-
virus cases.
He is now due to return home on
Wednesday to help lead the response to
the turmoil facing the holiday industry
and begin his 14-day quarantine. He has
left his wife and three children in south-
ern Spain so they can enjoy the remain-
der of their holiday.
Mr Shapps said: “Thousands of
people have seen their holidays dis-
rupted or cancelled due to the necessa-
Grant Shapps will
leave his family to
finish their holidayNews Coronavirus
Millions face losing entire cost
Ben Clatworthy Assistant Travel Editor
David Byers, Kat Lay
hope” that trips would be unaffected by
local lockdowns or changes in quaran-
tine restrictions.
“At the moment, booking a trip
abroad — and an insurance policy to go
with it — is an absolute buyer-beware
situation,” Rory Boland, the editor at
Which? Travel. “The government’s pol-
icies on foreign travel have lacked any
nuance from day one. It was either
‘everything is open, book a trip now’ or
‘everything is closed.’ People weren’t
made aware that this could happen.
“Insurance policies are guilty of the
same lack of nuance. They frequently
promote themselves as providing cover
in the case of Covid-19 disruption —
well here is Covid-19 disruption and in-
variably people find they are not being
covered.”
British travellers’ European Health
Insurance Cards, however, remain val-
id until the end of this year. The cards
entitle carriers to state healthcare in
EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein,
Norway or Switzerland on the same
basis as residents of that country. That
does not always mean it is free but usu-
ally means it is heavily subsidised.
An NHS Business Services Author-
ity spokeswoman said: “The arrange-
ments mean that any UK insured per-
son can access state-provided health-
care for Covid-19 in that country on the
same basis as a resident of that country.
This includes the European Health In-
surance Card for visitors, and health-
care for UK-state pensioners and bene-
fit holders through the S1 certificate.
Only Nationwide’s FlexPlus travel
insurance, which is included with its
£13-a-month current account, covers
trips cancelled because of a change in
Foreign Office advice after a booking is
made. It also covers curtailment
because of a local lockdown. Trailfind-
ers, Nationwide, Axa, All Clear, Cover-
wise and Insure For have policies that
will cover Covid-related cancellations
(but not as a result of a change in gov-
ernment travel restrictions), or treat-
ment and related costs if you get the
virus while abroad.
Leisure Guard, Staysure, Saga, and
the Post Office will cover medical care
for the virus once you are abroad but
not if a trip is cancelled before it begins.Cases per 100,
New hospital admissions
Number of new cases each day
Spain
349
855
24
65
Austria
Belgium
France
Netherlands
0
514
N/A
35
N/A
24
Germany
Greece
Switzerland
17
269
N/A
340
8
21
141
Italy
N/A
170
5
Croatia
N/A
170
COVID-19 two-week infection rate (Europe)
case rate per 100,000 population (July 13-26)Curfews and local lockdowns
make resorts the new front line
accommodation. Across the
Continent, the authorities are
imposing local lockdowns, curfews
and other measures in the hope of
averting a second wave and the
threat of a generalised confinement
once again.
In France officials in the popular
resort of Quiberon in Brittany have
made its beaches and parks a no-go
zone at night after the town, which
reported its first coronavirus case
last Tuesday, announced that it had
registered a total of 54 by the
weekend.
Locals blamed an influx of tourists
for the spike, although officials said
that the region’s partying young
people were responsible.
France, which was reporting an
average of 405 new cases a day inthe second week of June, registered
more than 1,000 a day last week,
although this fell to 514 in the past
24 hours after official warnings to
respect social distancing.
In Belgium the government
introduced drastic restrictions on
socialising after a sharp rise in the
infection rate, notably in Antwerp,
the country’s most populous region.
These included an order that
people must shop on their own and
spend no more than half an hour in
each retail outlet, while wearing a
facemask.
Belgians were also told that they
would have their “social bubble”
reduced from 15 different people
every week to five, and that they
would have to remain with the same
limited group of relatives or friendsR
estrictions are being
tightened across western
Europe amid signs that the
holiday season is
producing a worrying increase in
coronavirus cases.
Officials are blaming the rise on
partygoers congregating in bars
and beaches, and migrant workers
travelling in search of jobs and
staying in crampedDesperate measures
after arrival of the
summer hordes from
overseas raises danger
of a second wave
Masks on the Benidorm sands
in Spain, and at a testing centre
in Mannheim, GermanyFight on the beaches