The government’s decision to scrap quarantine measures for certain countries will allow travel companies to “plan ahead” and meet “pent-up appetite for travel”, according to ABTA.

As of 10 July, people arriving in England from more than 50 countries including France, Spain, Germany and Italy will no longer need to quarantine.

A full list of exempt countries will be published later today (3 July).

The Foreign Office will also amend its blanket advice against all non-essential travel from this Saturday (4 July).

An ABTA spokesperson said: “The government announcement today will be greeted with huge relief by the travel industry, which can now plan ahead and take summer holiday bookings.

“Later today, we will receive the list of countries exempted from quarantine restrictions for passengers returning to England from 10 July, and the FCO will set out exemptions for a number of destinations from its global advisory against ‘all but essential’ international travel, with those changes coming into effect from tomorrow.

“Travel businesses have been under enormous pressure since the start of the pandemic, and the industry can now start to meet customers’ pent-up appetite for travel. Getting the balance of health risk and economic risk is a difficult challenge, and we strongly support the government in taking this initiative.

“There will be some changes to people’s travel experiences because of the health and safety measures in place to limit Covid-19, and it will be important going forward that customers speak to their travel provider so that they so they can book and travel with confidence.

“And, of course, continued access to overseas destinations depends on keeping Covid infection and transmission rates low in this country, so everyone should continue to heed public health guidelines.

“We now urgently await the approach to be taken by the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to relaxing travel restrictions.”

ABTA recently released its Post Pandemic Recovery guide to support travel firms during the transition to restarting travel.