2020: the year the Earth didn't move

So, how was it for you? Nick Trend looks back on 12 months of Covid chaos for the travel industry – from record bookings in January to cancelled holidays, refund rows, tourists stranded abroad, permanently anchored cruise ships and airlines going out of business.

January: Bookings boom

“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” 

Donald Trump, Jan 22

It had all started so well. Last December, IATA, which represents the world’s airlines, had predicted that both profits and passenger numbers would rise sharply in 2020. And in this country optimism levels were high. Uncertainty over Brexit had suppressed bookings for much of 2019. Now that the transition arrangements with Europe had been settled, bookings for flights and summer holidays were soaring. January is always the busiest month for bookings, and this year they flooded in. Independent travel agents Travel Counsellors reported record sales: Jan 31 was its best ever day for bookings.

But the clouds were beginning to gather. News of an outbreak of an unknown coronavirus called Covid-19 in Wuhan was becoming unsettling.

February: Cruise crisis

“We don’t know why it’s so contagious, so that’s a big problem.” 

Zhong Nanshan, head of the Chinese team investigating coronavirus

On Feb 1, a passenger who had recently disembarked from the Diamond Princess cruise ship tested positive for Covid-19. It was the first of more than two dozen such outbreaks over the next few months. Diamond Princess arrived in Japan two days later and the 3,711 passengers and crew were quarantined. By the end of the month, more than 700 of those on board were infected and 14 eventually died. An unnamed man in his 70s was confirmed as the first British victim of Covid-19 on Feb 28.

Within days, another Princess Cruises ship – the Grand Princess – which was off the coast of California with 3,500 people on board, reported an outbreak. It docked in San Francisco on March 9, despite president Trump voicing his opposition: “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.” Seven people eventually died.

Cruise ships around the world began to limp home, with ports reluctant to accept disembarking passengers. The longest at sea was to be MSC Magnifica which left Genoa on Jan 5 and finally arrived back in Marseille on April 20 having circumnavigated the globe.

March: Reality bites

“We can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks and I’m absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing in this country.” 

Boris Johnson

Meanwhile, Covid was creeping closer to Britain, with widespread infection in Iran, and growing numbers in northern Italy. Travellers were getting nervous of what was clearly a highly infectious and dangerous disease. Bookings slowed and the situation hastened the collapse of the airline Flybe on March 4 and other airlines began cutting flights.

Between March 9 and March 23, Ryanair reduced its available seats from 2.5 million a week to just 276,696 – a fall of 88.7 per cent. For British Airways, the figure was 58.1 per cent, and within a month it was laying off 30,000 staff.

Politicians here were slow to grasp the seriousness of the situation. On March 3, as infections in Italy escalated, Boris Johnson visited a British hospital treating coronavirus patients, saying: “And I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know, and I continue to shake hands.” Two days later came the first death in the UK; a month later Johnson was in intensive care.

On March 12, school trips abroad were banned and people over 70 were advised to avoid cruises. Five days later, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, announced: “UK travellers abroad now face widespread international border restrictions and lockdowns in various countries, so I have taken the decision to advise British nationals against all non-essential international travel.” It was an astonishing moment. Never before in peace time had a government told us that we shouldn’t leave our own country.

The impact on the travel industry was seismic. Operators were now legally obliged to cancel trips and offer customers a refund. Although the FCO advice was initially time limited to 30 days (it was made indefinite on April 5), that period included the Easter holidays. Tour operators and airlines had millions of bookings to unravel. Tui – the largest operator – said afterwards that it had processed more than 800,000 cancellations over Easter.

There was also growing anxiety among those stranded abroad, caught out by local lockdowns and faced with cancelled flights. While some countries, such as Germany, organised rescue charters, many UK citizens were told to make their way back on commercial services – something that was becoming harder and harder to do.

In Peru, our correspondent Sarah Baxter was one of hundreds who felt abandoned by the Foreign Office. “All flights have been cancelled. The British Embassy in Lima has closed its doors. The emergency helpline it put out rang through to no one,” she said.

On March 23, Raab advised all British travellers abroad who are usually based in the UK “to return now” but it wasn’t until March 30 that he announced a programme of charter flights to help bring people home. In Europe, Italy was the first country to go into full lockdown on March 10. Spain followed four days later, then France on the 17th. In Britain, lockdown wasn’t imposed until the 26th. We weren’t to emerge from the key restrictions until July 4. By the end of the month, half the world’s population was locked down – more than 3.9 billion people in over 90 countries and territories.

April: Lockdown and the refund crisis

“Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities. It has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void… We find ourselves afraid and lost.” 

Pope Francis

The most extraordinary period of our lifetimes had begun. Travel was suspended. The motorways emptied, the rush hour evaporated and the vapour trails faded from the skies. Images of the effects on some of the world’s busiest places began to emerge. Empty airports, cruise liners lying silently at anchor, tourist honeypots devoid of people. Venice was so quiet that the sediment settled and the water ran so clear that you could see the fish swimming under the bridges. And though the sun beat down on Britain, our beaches and beauty spots were eerily deserted. The world seemed to have paused for breath.

There was an upside. Emissions plummeted. The smog cleared to reveal blue skies over China’s cities. Locals in the Indian region of Jalandhar tweeted photos of the Himalayas more than 120 miles distant and now visible for the first time in 30 years following a drop in air pollution. Destinations such as Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam – where tourism had been reaching crisis levels in 2019 – had an unexpected chance to take stock and think about how they might better manage their futures.

But, for travellers, tensions were building. Those who had seen their holidays cancelled were struggling to get their money back. At Telegraph Travel, we were inundated with complaints about airlines, operators and agents denying refunds. Phone calls and emails were left unanswered, legal obligations ignored and frustrations grew.

The uncertainty about when we might be able to travel again made things worse. After that surge of confidence back in January, millions of ­holidays had been booked for July and August. Operators didn’t know whether they could run them, and the deadlines for balance payments – usually 90 per cent of the cost, due eight or two weeks before departure – were looming. Millions were being asked to pay, not knowing if they were going to be able to travel, and well aware of the growing problem of refunds. But if they didn’t pay, they risked forfeiting deposits.

May: Road map out of lockdown

“Drive as far as you like to reach an outdoor space.” 

Boris Johnson

On May 10, after six weeks of lockdown, Boris Johnson announced his road map back to normality. People were to be allowed out of their houses for unlimited exercise, to meet outdoors and to drive to beaches and beauty spots. But although day trips were back on the agenda, our prospects for summer travel were not looking good. During lockdown people had been able to enter the UK without going into quarantine. Now Johnson ruled that, from June 8, arriving travellers would have to self-isolate for two weeks.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, warned on May 12 that summer holidays abroad were likely to be cancelled this year. But almost immediately, Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, appeared to pull a rabbit out of his hat, introducing the idea of quarantine-free “air bridges” which would allow holidays to go ahead after all – though arrangements weren’t actually confirmed until July 3, three weeks before the main summer holidays.

June: Green shoots

“We ask all our visitors to be kind to both people and the place… We’ve had some real issues with littering, fires, illegal camping and terrible car parking in the last couple of weeks.”

Richard Leafe, Lake District National Park

Early summer saw a rush of optimism. On June 3 the National Trust, which had already reopened many of its car parks in England, started reopening some of its gardens. English Heritage followed 10 days later.

In the glorious lockdown weather, the urge to travel – even just for the day – was strong. On June 25, when the ­temperature hit 33.3C (91.9F), Bournemouth was swamped by half a million day visitors. “Please stay away”, pleaded the council, which declared a major emergency incident, and had to clear 33 tons of waste from the beach. Similar sentiments were expressed at beaches and beauty spots all over Britain. But there was little appetite to return to tourist sites in towns and cities. London, Paris and Venice, among many others, were to remain largely deserted through the summer and autumn.

Not that we weren’t wanted. Italy opened its borders to tourists on June 3 and, by the middle of the month, the EU was lifting internal travel restrictions in a concerted attempt to rekindle tourism. Most of its borders were open by the end of the month. On June 21, Spain removed quarantine restrictions on UK visitors, but we were still hamstrung. The Foreign Office continued to advise against all but essential travel.

July: False Dawn

“Many holidaymakers will be deeply angry that the Government didn’t make this decision 48 hours ago, before tens of thousands of them flew off for their summer holidays in Spain.” 

Rory Boland, Which? Travel

July 4 marked the key stage in the ending of lockdown. Pubs, restaurants, hotels and B&Bs, museums and cinemas could now reopen. And finally, the air bridge arrangements were confirmed. From July 10, reciprocal arrangements would allow us to travel to about 50 countries and territories without quarantine.

Most of Europe was covered, and although there were omissions – Portugal wasn’t included – for three short weeks, things seemed almost to return to normal. Sure, we wore masks on planes, masks by the pool, masks in museums. But a sizeable number of us had our summer holidays after all. And those who couldn’t get away flocked to the coast and countryside in the UK.

Shapps became a regular tweeter of good news. On July 24, he added five more countries to the corridors list, including Slovenia and Slovakia. And the next day he headed off on holiday to Spain. Bad move. On landing the phone rang and he was faced with organising the removal of his own holiday destination from the quarantine list with only a few hours’ notice. On July 29, he flew back early and went into self isolation. It was the busiest holiday weekend of the year to the most popular destination. Hundreds of thousands were caught out by quarantine rules or had their holidays cancelled with only hours’ notice. It was a massive practical and psychological blow to both travellers and the travel industry, and hugely exacerbated the refunds problem.

August: More setbacks

“The UK needs a passenger testing regime and fast. Without it, Britain is just playing a game of quarantine roulette.” 

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow Airport

Throughout August infection rates in the UK remained encouragingly low, with domestic tourism on our beaches and in the countryside booming, but most of the news abroad was worse. On Aug 3, 41 passengers and crew on a Norwegian cruise ship, Hurtigruten’s MS Roald Amundsen, tested positive for Covid-19. On Aug 13, France, the Netherlands and Malta then lost their ­quarantine-free status. A week later so did Croatia and Austria. Portugal was added on Aug 22, only to be dropped again on Sept 10.

September: Test4Travel

Quarantine policy is “a shambles of mismanagement… You’re much more likely to get Covid in Bolton rather than Barcelona.” 

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair

It was quite clear that the corridor system wasn’t working – it was far too unstable. At the beginning of September, we began our campaign to get ­Britain travelling again in a safer and more predictable way. Test4Travel backed the concept of testing passengers on arrival at airports, followed by a second test five days later. Two negative results would reduce quarantine from 14 to five days. Within days, dozens of leading figures in the travel industry, a group of 80 MPs, and leading health experts had backed the idea, as had the vast majority of our readers. But the Government resisted and we limped on. On Sept 7, Greece’s most popular party islands were taken off the corridor list. Turkey was removed on Oct 1, Italy followed two weeks later.

October: Global Taskforce

“This new taskforce will… help us move towards safer, smoother international travel.” 

Grant Shapps

Finally, on Oct 7, the very end of the Mediterranean holiday season, the Prime Minister announced a Global Taskforce to assess the effectiveness of airport testing. It would report “no later than early November”. Hopes were ­bolstered by an Office for National Statistics survey, published on Oct 27. It found that the infection rate among those who had travelled abroad in the past 30 days was roughly the same as that for people who stayed in the UK. Perhaps travel could be saved? Not just yet. The second national lockdown was announced on Oct 31. More holidays cancelled. More dreams dashed.

November: The beginning of the end

“The light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Dr Anthony Fauci, White House Coronavirus Task Force, on the Pfizer vaccine

And then, at last, we turned the corner. The stunning results of the Pfizer vaccine trials were announced on Nov 9, those of Moderna six days later and AstraZeneca’s more garbled results came a week after that. At last we had a way out, a route back to normality. For the travel industry, the short-term news was mixed. SeaDream I, one of the first cruise ships to visit the Caribbean since the pandemic began, abandoned its voyage on Nov 14, after only four days, when five passengers tested positive for coronavirus. But finally, on Nov 24, the Travel Taskforce confirmed that, under a Test to Release scheme, tourists arriving in England from countries outside of the travel corridors would have quarantine times reduced to 10 days, or five if they pay for a test and it is negative.

December: Planning again

“I hope that we have a normal summer this summer coming.”

Matt Hancock, Health Secretary

The shortened quarantine times came into force last week, though most of the companies approved to offer tests were not yet ready to do so. And, while independent travellers are freer to travel, the Test to Release scheme doesn’t help the travel industry much.

Package holidays are effectively limited to some key Caribbean islands, the Maldives and the Seychelles because the Foreign Office still advises against non-essential travel to countries not on the travel corridor list. And only last week, the Canaries – the single most popular destination at this time of year – was removed from that list.

Much is still uncertain. Millions of us remain in financial limbo, holding vouchers, or waiting for refunds. The industry is in a parlous state and the vaccination programme will take months yet to implement. And now we have the added uncertainty created by a variant of the virus, which has seen dozens of countries temporarily ban flights from the UK.

We don’t know if there will be a ski season, or Easter holidays, or if we will have to wait until next summer for a sense of normality to return. But at least we can put the horror of 2020 behind us and start to plan again.