What is worse? Being told you cannot travel because of a growing covid issue or just carrying on as usual and catching the new variant?

As the roll of new cases in the UK goes up Austria has announced that it is going back into full lockdown with effect from 22^nd November.

Traditionally probably we do not have sympathy with airlines; they somehow usually manage to fall on their feet and generally at the expense of the flying public.

When you look at the Johns Hopkins table of cases and deaths, it is quite shocking to see that the UK is practically at the top of the list, number 4 in fact in terms of official case numbers.

Having told you about a new hospitality council yesterday poised to set the world to rights, today it is criticised for not being representative.

The news that travel to the US is being re-opened from November has been greeted with pleasure.

The announcement from the Transport Secretary that travel restrictions are to be lifted will no doubt be great news for everyone.

Here we are at the end of August and basically the end of the summer holiday season.

France tightens its grip on areas of activity in the country where vaccinations are compulsory.

Considering the lack of apparent concern now and reduction in wearing of masks you would think that this pandemic was over.

It is strange that events and circumstances can conspire together to bring about unintended and / or unexpected consequences.

Day after day, week after week we seem to be reporting that new cases of coronavirus in the UK are on the increase, not at a huge rate, but inexorably and consistently.

A couple of weeks ago smiling tv reporters were telling us that the toll of new cases of covid-19 had dropped “off the edge of a cliff”.

Bit by bit stories are beginning to emerge now about individuals dying of covid 19 unnecessarily.

Along comes another review of the traffic light travel system with countries moving in both directions.

It does seem absurd that having lifted restrictions in England huge numbers of people are having to self-isolate because of “pingdemonium”.

The travel rules into the UK are really something of a confused muddle.

There will not be many who are not deeply worried about the increase in numbers of new cases of covid-19, not just in the UK but world-wide.

It is fair to say that Professor Chris Whitty has made his mark in the past year and a half.

The attitudes of different people across England and indeed the UK are beginning to get frenetic.

It’s a “home day” today – a day when I wonder what I have achieved with the 400 blogs I have now completed. You can read them all and see for yourself!

The announcements are coming thick and fast now and double-vaxxers will not have to quarantine when returning from amber listed countries. And this more or less opens up Europe for holiday makers.

There is no doubt that when coronavirus became a reality everyone became dead scared. And they were right to.

There was a time when no one was very keen on masks; now everyone is worried about whether lifting restrictions is coming too soon. How fickle we are!

The government has made it clear that their concern all along has been to “protect the NHS” and in their eyes this objective has now been achieved.

As restrictions start to be lifted, new controls come into force to attempt to control the spread of coronavirus but it is not as simple as it might sound.

As our daily cases number now has crept over 22000, we learn that Portugal is stepping up it measures against holiday makers who cannot prove they are double vaccinated. And Portugal is not alone – Malta is to disallow arrivals who are not doubly vaccinated from Wednesday and Spain also needs travellers to show they are doubly vaccinated or produce a negative PCR test.

The travel companies want it all opened up as quickly as possible while Angela Merkel wants all of Europe to impose quarantine on arrivals from Britain.

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc across the world with economies and businesses, literally on a global scale. Indeed, who knows what further damage will follow in its wake?

There are now so many different rules and regulations in relation to coronavirus and differing levels of information that people are beginning to lose track, that is if they have not already done so.

The question has been raging on now for months as to whether there should be a UK vaccination passport or certificate and it is very clear that there is mixed feeling over this.

As the holiday and aviation industries get hot under the collar over the removal of Portugal from the green list, the ONS reports a 76.5% increase in cases in the past week in England.

Talk about turning the knife in the wound; the removal of Portugal from the green list will be a real blow both to the British and the Portuguese.

The first day without deaths in the UK for a year is certainly a red letter moment; hopefully there will be more.

Life gets no easier with the pandemic and France has now decided to close its borders with the UK.

Do you remember the covid passport? This was the document which was never going to be introduced according to government thinking at the time.

Back in January we reported on how airships might become a transport of the future after the disastrous Hindenburg incident 84 years ago.

What a bit of luck people are allowed to change their minds! From saying some months ago that the government had no intention of providing any form of covid passport, now they have.

It is all very well people saying that we are making steps back to normal, but do they mean “new normal”?

We have watched the UK green list get wittled down as the week has gone on but surely we must be in the position now where Israel is not going to be someone’s destination of choice for their summer holiday, at least not at the moment.

Is it all just too much of a frenzy? Is this desire to jet off to foreign parts just a reaction again having been stuck at home for so long? Is it really that important to get away that it is worth running the gauntlet with all the different restrictions and hurdles?

It sounded simple, albeit somewhat limited, but a list of green countries where we could travel with minimal tests and no quarantine seemed like a good start to re-opening international travel.

One could be forgiven for thinking that the British government is having a “bit of a larf” over the travel traffic light system and, in particular the green list of countries.

So now there is an even better reason to have a vaccination than before. Not only do you protect yourself but a study shows that the risk of transmission of covid-19 to others is significantly reduced.

The situation in India continues to deteriorate and the graphic scenes shown on the television continue to horrify us all.

As the days go by we see complaint after complaint about the effects of the virus on our society – as if it was someone’s fault.

The way discussions are moving forward around the world for a covid passport are beginning to get very interesting.

The need for there to be a covid-19 passport is hotting up as P&O has made it quite clear what its requirements will be.

Last week Cyprus announced that from 1^st May they would welcome Brits who had received both of their vaccinations.

Today’s announcement that Cyprus will allow British in quarantine free from 1^st May if they have had both of their vaccinations has thrown the whole holiday situation up into the air.

The news that the European Union is intent on the development of a vaccination certificate, to be known as a “digital green pass” is ironical in the extreme.

The timing of today’s announcements means that we shall not really have a full picture of where the country is going until later this evening.

There is no doubt about it but the travel industry has every reason to feel glum at the moment and this is not going to change any time soon.

It’s all about Covid-19 at the moment. Hospitals bulging to overflowing, patients being examined in corridors and ambulances and doctors tearing their hair out because of insufficient resources. How did we allow this to creep up on us without realising what was about to happen?

There has been a general call for a Minister of Hospitality for a number of months, encouraged particularly by the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has caused enormous damage to the hospitality sector and is set to wreak yet further havoc before it is all over.

Last night at 8pm Central European Time we gathered around the TV to listen to the President of the Republic address the nation, and deliver perhaps one of the worst kept secrets so far this year. We are back in lockdown, a decision taken in conjunction with the opposition parties and trade unions, in other words all those in responsibility.

Heathrow Airport is seldom out of the news for long and has certainly been making a lot of noise in the past nine months, although not so much of that noise has been made by aeroplanes.

The sight of Blackpool on Saturday might, when all is well, would be a wonderful sight for local businesses – all that trade three quarters of the way through September.

Just about everyone who stays at a hotel at any time knows about Booking.com. As online travel agents, OTAs, go, it is probably just about the best known. Their site is comprehensive and they include loads of photographs of proposed destinations and provide a fairly good amount of information about venues to enable people to make their selections.

News has now emerged that 40 of the hotels are to be reopened under a new banner – the phoenix rises. The properties will now come under management by Bespoke Hotels under a five year agreement.

I know we do quite hammer this particular topic but it seems to us that it is so important that no amount of thought given to it is too much.

Yesterday we said that we were surprised quarantining incomers from France had not come into force. I guess that the Transport Secretary read our blog!

It is perhaps a little known fact that there are areas which belong to Britain which are clear of coronavirus. You cannot tell this from looking at Johns Hopkins as their table brackets the “Channel Islands” as one territory but in fact the Bailiwick of Guernsey is Covid-19 free and life has gone back to normal, even down to kissing and hugging!

In order to try to allay the fear of air travel which a lot of people seem to have at the moment, a few innovations are emerging. United Airlines is trying a new technique to keep passengers safe and reduce the spread of coronavirus.

I suppose we might have guessed that sooner or later we would be facing the question of whether you feel safe going out again or not. The answers to this question will be as numerous as the number of people asked but as we learn more about Covid-19 we can see how different groups of people come into being with their own particular and no doubt valid point of view.

Wales is a wonderful country in so many ways but at the moment if you live there you are stuck with travelling no further than five miles from home or if you are not, you cannot even go there.

The latest round of redundancies appears to be from Jet2. It would appear that 102 captains and first officers are to be made redundant, the leavers being those who joined the company most recently. Another report states that 380 cabin crew will be made redundant; it is not entirely clear whether this figure includes the pilots or not but the inference is that it does not.

We can be forgiven for becoming more and more confused and less and less certain about what we are and are not allowed to do as the days go by.

Are you getting a bit fed up with staying at home? Do you really feel that a holiday might just be within your grasp this summer now? Well it is not all plain sailing but there is help at hand.