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Some 400,000 clients had their holidays postponed until this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but are now “in doubt” as Covid-19 continues to cause uncertainty, said the executive director of the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA). ).
On Thursday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that the possibility of traveling abroad this year will depend on the data, but warned that “long before” non-essential travel resumes, the mandatory quarantine will be “in place.” Varadkar believes that summer will be another national tourist season.
ITAA director Pat Dawson said travel agents across the country were not encouraging customers to book vacations abroad this summer.
“We moved 400,000 clients from their vacations last year to this year, and now there is no really clear path on what is going to work and what is not going to work. Most of the summer it seems like it’s not going to happen. Now they are in doubt, ”he said.
He added: “We are not encouraging people to book during the summer at this time, because we don’t want them to go through what they went through last summer with the cost of the change … there is a charge if the rate is different when you move to another date. ”
The ITAA has called for a change in legislation to ensure that airlines cannot fly empty planes, known as “ghost flights,” to avoid issuing refunds. Under EU law, airlines must reimburse customers if a flight is canceled.
“We don’t want a situation like last year where airlines flew phantom flights and people couldn’t get their money back,” Dawson said.
Meanwhile, Ryanair is more optimistic that leisure travel will resume this summer as the elderly and most vulnerable get vaccinated against the virus.
The airline launched a Covid-19 “travel wallet” in its app, which will allow passengers to upload Covid-related documents, such as negative PCR test results and vaccination certificates, which may be required to travel to the EU.
There have been discussions at the European level about a digital vaccine passport, although privacy and data protection concerns have been raised.
A spokeswoman for the Data Protection Commission said it has “had no engagement with Ryanair in the Covid-19 certificate wallet to date.”
On the EU’s plans, the spokesperson said the DPC “will consider the data protection implications of any developments” in collaboration with its European counterpart, adding that “any processing of personal data in this context is” expected to comply with. fully compliant with the GDPR “. .
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