Accurate as of: 26 August 2020
UK Media & Consumer Market Update
Current UK status:
Visit www.gov.uk/coronavirus for all official information.
- As of 5pm on 25 August 2020, a total of 15,177,265 people have been tested for coronavirus (COVID-19), of which 327,798 were confirmed positive.
- 41,449 patients in the UK who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.
- The self-isolation period has been extended from 7 days to 10 days for those who have COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result.
- Local lockdowns continue in the North of England, Leicester, Blackburn, Oldham and Pendle.
- It has been announced that mass testing across the UK population may begin to help ease restrictions.
UK travel restrictions:
Visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/foreign-commonwealth-office for all official information.
- As countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, including travel and border restrictions, the FCO advises British nationals against all but essential international travel.
- A 14-day mandatory quarantine for all UK arrivals except for those announced as exempt. See here for the full list of exempt countries. Countries can be added or removed from this list at any time.
- FCO travel advice includes information on any health measures in place for visitors to a country or territory. These can include a requirement to self-isolate, quarantine or undergo testing for coronavirus, or even restrictions on entry.
Latest updates:
- The collapse of international tourism is set to cost the UK economy some £22 billion this year, and place nearly three million jobs at risk (TTG)
- The government was due to review quarantine measures and the potential for a relaxation this week, but sources suggested limited prospects of immediate change (Travel Weekly)
- The UK’s travel industry has reached a “critical point” and is calling for further support to stem job losses. Measures to curb the pandemic have already led to the loss of around 39,000 jobs, said travel industry trade body ABTA (BBC)
- A handful of European countries could be removed from the UK’s shrinking quarantine-free list as new cases rise across the continent, including in Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Iceland (Telegraph)
- Portugal has been added to the UK’s quarantine-free list, with TUI and Ryanair adding more flights to the destination to meet demand (Express)
- Brits arriving in France may soon have to quarantine after entering the country. It’s believed the move comes as the French government responds to being taken off the UK government’s list of travel corridors and instead put with countries on the quarantine list (Mail Online)
- American Airlines has said it will cut 19,000 jobs in October when a government wage support scheme extended to airlines during the pandemic comes to an end (BBC)
- The Financial Ombudsman Service has received around 3,500 coronavirus-related complaints so far this year, with almost a quarter of complaints received about travel insurance firms, as global travel disruption has led to widespread cancellations and many have struggled to get refunds from holiday providers (Money Saving Expert)
- Irish travellers are facing numerous challenges as government advice remains to avoid non-essential travel (opinion piece) (Telegraph)
- STA Travel, which grew out of a student travel business and specialised in trips for young people, including gap years and volunteer projects, has ceased trading. It has over 50 stores in the UK, and about 500 UK jobs are thought to be at risk (BBC)
- New poll results from Travelport show that 33% of consumers are now more likely to book trips using a travel agent, and 82% say they are either more likely or the same as before (Travel Week)
- Most UK holidaymakers would cancel a holiday if they had to wear a mask in public on a trip, according to a report. A YouGov survey released found that two-thirds of people (65%) would cancel if masks were mandatory at all times, 43% would still cancel if only compulsory inside, while 70% would scrap the holiday if they had to quarantine on return (Guardian)
- News UK is proposing to close the popular Sunday Times Travel Magazine to focus resources on the newspaper and its digital offerings. Redundancies are expected (Press Gazette)
Social media:
- TikTok is suing Donald Trump’s administration, citing their impending ban as unconstitutional. Oh boy. In the meantime, they’ve officially released user counts. With 100 million active monthly users in the US, it’s actually behind Snapchat in terms of user base. Globally, though, it has 690 million users though it’s uncertain if this includes Indian users after their ban there from June.
- Facebook’s renamed their AR/VR teams to ‘Facebook Reality Labs’. This includes product development on things like Oculus VR and even Instagram Lenses. Oculus in particular has been a best-seller during lockdown with demand exceeding supply. For a software platform, Facebook’s certainly seeing a lot of success in the hardware department lately — see below for more on Portal.
- Twitter is testing replacing ‘retweets and comments’ count with ‘Quotes’ count to better delineate different kinds of tweets.
- Pinterest is providing tips for travel brands amid early signs of travel recovery around the world. Anything involving the privacy and biosecurity of your own car is a goer and ‘RV camping trips’ have spiked 1257%.
- Instagram’s replacing nametag codes with QR codes, as coronavirus pushes us all towards actually using QR codes for a change.
- Facebook Portal adds support for video calls via Zoom, WebEx, Blue Jeans, and more. It’s a push to add functionality to a piece of hardware that’s apparently actually excellent and hits a lockdown sweet spot.
- BBC Sport is taking social moderation into its own hands. Even outside Twitter’s content guidelines, the broadcaster has laid down their own rules for how they’re going to be handling trolls and abusive comments in the future. It’s a great look into the kind of community management planning that goes on behind-the-scenes and an excellent step forward for female athletes in particular.
- The social giants have begun chatting with government partners to work out a plan in the event of the American election in November ‘going wrong.’ Exactly what ‘going wrong’ entails remains vague but with postal voting under fire by the Trump Administration expect there to be accusations of foul play if there’s an undesirable result… for either side.
- Find yourself ‘doomscrolling’ morning, noon, and night? Break the habit with these handy tips from The Independent.
