The decision by France to relax travel restrictions on arrivals from the UK has sparked a rush to book holidays across La Manche.
France said vaccinated travellers will no longer be required to provide a compelling reason to enter France (“the cheese and wine are fantastic”) and will not have to self-isolate when they arrive.
People who are not vaccinated, however, will still need to provide a compelling reason to visit the country.
In either case, travellers will still need to have tested negative for Covid-19 24 hours before leaving the UK.
The BBC reported that package tours operator Jet2 has already seen a sharp rise in bookings and searches on its website for flights to French destinations, especially ski resorts.
TUI AG (LSE:TUI) also reported keen interest in skiing holidays, with bookings doubling on Wednesday at rumours circulated of an imminent change in policy by the French authorities.
"Thousands of people head [to France] for ski breaks at this time of year, so this will be a huge relief for customers with holidays booked there for the next few weeks, who have been waiting anxiously for news," a spokesperson for ABTA, the travel industry body, told the BBC.
Last week, ABTA listed France as the third most popular overseas travel destination for Britons in 2022, down one place from 2021’s ranking, with 17.8% of 2,000 holiday bookers who were surveyed opting for holidays in the country despite France introducing stricter travel conditions on 18 December in an attempt to slow the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.