As of January 7, 2022, the British government no longer requires vaccinated travellers (and those under the age of 18) to present negative COVID test results to enter the country, or to self-isolate on arrival.
As we’ve seen throughout the global pandemic, travel demand is very sensitive to changes in border restrictions, and in the case of the UK’s diminished restriction, this pattern remained true; since the end of December 2021 when the news was announced, there has been a positive impact on travel demand to the UK (as illustrated in the graph below).
In fact, flight searches to UK airports increased by 32% in the last week (week-on-week); more specifically, flight searches made by English travellers (the primary feeder market) have increased by 33%, Spanish flight searches have increased by 35% and Italian flight searches by 23%, in the last week alone.
Most of the flight searches show that travelers want to travel immediately: 44% of flight searces are for flights departing in January, with trips from January 8 to 14 being especially popular. Only Spanish travellers’ searches show a different timeline; Spanish travellers are interested in travelling in April.
By Michela Ciccarelli, Destination Data Specialist at Lybra
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