Accurate as of: 30 September 2020
Current UK status:
Visit www.coronavirus.data.gov.uk for all official information.
- As of 4pm on 29 September 2020, a total of 20,503,188 people have been tested for coronavirus (COVID-19), of which 446,156 were confirmed positive.
- 42,072 patients in the UK who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.
- Local lockdowns continue in the North of England, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Blackburn, Oldham, Pendle and Bolton.
- A full Q&A regarding the UK lockdown rules can be found
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.
- All travellers entering the UK or returning to the UK must complete a comprehensive passenger locator form, or risk a fine.
Latest updates:
- The government has rejected calls from the travel sector for an extension to the furlough scheme, and warned further “bespoke” sector-specific financial support would only come “as a last resort” (TTG)
- Confidence in travelling abroad has been “shattered” by government policies, the leading travel trade association has said. Abta, representing travel agents and tour operators, is accusing ministers of creating “a straitjacket to travel” (Independent)
- Airport testing at London Heathrow could be in place within two weeks, the government has suggested, with flights to New York “up and running” by the end of November. The test would cost £150, to be taken upon departure with another to follow five or seven days later; effectively halving the current 14-day quarantine requirement (Telegraph)
- Tui Group has gained agreement for a second injection of state aid to see it through the winter. Europe’s largest travel organisation confirmed it had fulfilled another condition for the provision of a second stabilisation package by the German government. The support package will give Tui an additional €1.2 billion to give a total of €2 billion (Travel Weekly)
- The new government wage subsidy scheme will save just one job per company in the business travel sector according to the CEO of Business Travel Association (City AM)
- This week, four more countries risk being taken off the UK’s ‘travel corridor’ list as coronavirus cases continue to rise. Italy, Greece, Poland and Sweden could all be scrapped from the ‘safe’ travel list, which would leave very few countries left for Brits to travel to safely (Liverpool Echo)
- There are just four countries on the new Ireland travel green list issued this week and none of them are popular destinations for Irish travellers. The countries are Cyprus, Finland, Latvia and Liechtenstein. The UK remains off the list (Irish Times)
- The UK’s largest airlines are not proactively seating passengers apart even when there is room to do so, according to a Which? investigation (Which)
- More people would feel safe from Covid-19 travelling by ferry, than by aeroplane, train or coach, according to a survey of UK consumers by industry body Discover Ferries (Cruise and Ferry Net)
- Hundreds of thousands of aviation jobs are at risk without more state aid, International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned. The association, which represents 290 airlines, says it expects traffic to be 66% below the level it was in 2019 (BBC)
- Ongoing travel restrictions between the UK and the USA will negatively affect the former’s economy by £32 million ($41 million) a day by the beginning of October, but losses could be reduced and confidence restored if some markets between the two countries were allowed to reopen later this year, according to a new study carried out by York Aviation on behalf of Airlines UK (Flight Global)
- Travel professionals can now register for WTM virtual, with early bird tickets £25 each (TTG)
Social media:
- TikTok’s still not banned in the United States so who knows. A court further blocked the ban after a further delay of the executive order’s ban to last Sunday, the 27th of September. Looks like it’s one-nil in favour of Beijing at the moment.
- New LinkedIn is here! It’s a bit more polished and a lot closer to new Facebook than you’d probably expect given how closely together they’ve rolled out. LinkedIn Stories have also rolled out to all users which is just another way to post ephemeral business poetry if you like.
- Facebook has launched a new account centre to better connect its cross-data and payment systems. This new tool is for businesses looking to connect their Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger accounts and streamline payments, posts, and the ways you move between apps.
- Facebook’s also removing the long-standing ’30% rule’ on ads. It’s been an informal suggestion for a little while anyway but it’s now something they’re formally removing. That’s not an excuse to go wild with text on your ads but it is worth remembering that some of the best ads from the past are long-form copy ads.
- Related, the social network’s deprecating its 28-day attribution window for ad conversions. This means that Facebook will no longer count ad presence or site actions as a result of the ads up to 28 days ago as a conversion.
- Slightly related, Instagram’s published a new guide to setting up and maximising the potential of Instagram Shops. Remember that 80% of users follow brands specifically for updates — multiply that by 1 billion daily active users and you’ve got a nice little audience built in.
- Pinterest’s also adding new ad inventory ahead of the holiday season as it continues its more aggressive push into ecommerce. They’re also expanding the launch of Pinterest stories as well as new pin analytics tools to help you better report success on the platform.
- You might remember when Twitter rolled out it’s ‘Do you want to read this article before you retweet it?’ feature. Well, it’s been three months since then and they’ve just published data on the way people do — and don’t — tweet after reading.
- TikTok, in its pursuit to become a second-generation social platform, continues to fight first-generation social platform battles. In this case, they’re banning weight loss ads because they, like Facebook years ago, realised that ads that make your users feel bad don’t help your app grow.
