What does Brexit mean for British travel?

Right then, well, hasn’t the the past week been eventful? I spent it in Budapest exploring the city, eating the food, drinking in bars, and discovering that the British Public voted to leave the EU. I could go into the politics of it, but I won’t. However, I personally voted to remain by postal vote before flying to Budapest. But instead of politics, I’m going to talk about the hand we’ve been dealt, and what it may mean for future travel.

THE FALL OF THE POUND

Well, on Friday, following the result, the pound plummeted, briefly by more than 10%, and it is still below. My girlfriend and I experienced this in Hungary on Friday when earlier in the week £1 bought 404 Hungarian Forints, but on Friday £1 bought only 346. In the short term, everything is going to cost more, from cups of coffee to cruises. The amount of this increase in cost all depends on where the £ settles. The Treasury estimated a maximum increase of cost of around 15% before the referendum vote.

This isn’t great for 2016 summer holiday makers. As the value of the £ decreases we have to watch the ratio of €:£ and $:£. For the majority of holiday makers, Europe is the destination; South of France, Spanish Costas, Italy etc. The reduction of the pound to the €:£ means that buying euros for your holiday will cost more. The price of €500 for spending money will be greater today than what it was last week. The $:£ rate is also significant as oil is priced in dollars. Therefore a fall in £ will push up the price of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel for airlines. This is likely to have repercussions.

OPEN SKIES

Since 1994, any EU airline has been free to fly between any two points in Europe. This is the “open skies” and it represents one of the greatest benefits of European Union membership to travellers and holiday makers.

The result of leaving the EU means that airlines will likely segregate to UK and EU-based airlines, which may potentially add to the cost, and impair flexibility, of flights. Best case scenario, the UK manages to negotiate a similar arrangement to that of Norway (a non-EU country). Norwegian is a highly successful budget airline (I flew with them to Berlin) both in Europe and UK to US. If a similar agreement is made than actually very little is likely to change. After all, London is the world hub of aviation, it would be surprising if routes to and from the UK were affected by Brexit.

VISAS

As a country, Britain has a tourism deficit. What this means is that despite the large number of tourists that visit London, and other UK cities each year, to take photos of Westminster, Big Ben, and spend their money on tacky souvenirs — British tourists spend even more money when we’re abroad.

In the build up to the Referendum, the Remain campaign suggested that we’ll all be needing Visas before being allowed entry into EU countries for beach holidays and city breaks. However, returning the notion that we spend an exorbitant amount of money abroad, and that the tourism industry, and the economic benefit that many EU countries gain from us visiting them, the idea that they would implement tougher border control for us is rather extreme. Despite being an EU member, the UK is not within the Schengen Area, so we have to show our passports on entry. It is likely that once departing the EU, we will just carry on showing our passports on arrival to Benidorm and Rome.

HEALTH INSURANCE

As a member of the EU, European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) entities us to public health care on the same basis as local people in EU countries. Surly this will change, and we will require more expensive travel and health insurance for traveling to mainland Europe? Well, potentially. But, before joining the EU, the UK already had in place healthcare agreements with many other European nations. Additionally, reciprocal relations still exist between the UK and 16 other countries including Australia and New Zealand. The most likely result is that agreements will be made on a country by country basis, similar to that before the EU. So it may affect some destinations, but in the long run it should be okay.

WHAT NEXT?

Ultimately, this is all predictions, estimations and theories. Our country has been, figuratively speaking, “reborn”, and is only 3 days old. Furthermore, the people which look set to take helm now that Cameron has abandoned ship, spent their Friday playing cricket in celebration. So all we really have is uncertainty. We’re just going to have to wait and see what happens next.

My suggestion? Go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.