The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has called upon the United Kindgom Government to bring an end to the widely discredited travel traffic light system.

The call came last week after the UK updated its travel restriction list which saw just seven countries added to the green category, with Thailand, a popular winter sun destination for holiday starved Britons, and Montenegro, added to the red list.

Turkey, widely expected to be able to welcome British visitors, stayed in no-go red, seriously damaging its travel sector.

The WTTC, which represents the global travel and tourism private sector, argued that both consumers and travel and tourism businesses have lost confidence in the system. It condemned the endless chopping and changing of countries that, it said, causes confusion, and only benefits an unregulated market of costly test suppliers.

According to the global tourism body, planning for most businesses — and holidaymakers — had been rendered next to impossible by the 51st change announced last week.

“The time has come to ditch these disruptive updates completely and allow all those fully vaccinated to travel freely once more, unless travelling to a red-list country,” the WTTC said.

“Travel should be allowed with testing — for the unvaccinated — to ensure those who are unable to get vaccinated are not discriminated against,” it added.

The council recommended that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests should be replaced with the more affordable antigen tests. “However, if the UK Government continues to insist on costly and unnecessary PCR tests, it should bear the cost instead of passing it on to consumers, which deters Britons from travelling,” the WTTC said, adding that costly testing is putting travel out of the reach of hard-working families and returning it to the preserve of the wealthy.

“The traffic light system is widely discredited. It puts the UK at a disadvantage and is squandering the vaccine dividend,” a WTTC news release quotes President & CEO Julia Simpson.

“This is the 51st change in a baffling array of travel bans. Holidaymakers are confused and frustrated. The UK Government is seriously damaging the travel and tourism sector which in turn supports thousands of businesses and jobs,” Simpson said.

“The UK Government appears to have no exit plan. The Global Travel Taskforce, set up to oversee these haphazard travel restrictions, must set out a clear strategy to recover normal travel,” Simpson argued.

“Nowhere should be off limits to anyone in the UK who is fully vaccinated, except in exceptional circumstances.

“Turkey is a wonderful country and has been a very popular destination for British holidays for many years. The UK Government’s decision to keep it on a no-go ‘red’ list is very disappointing. Travel and tourism businesses up and down the country were looking forward to welcoming British holidaymakers and the return of Turks living in the UK who are desperate to visit family and friends. WTTC will do all we can to reverse this decision,” she added.

The WTTC has helped to spearhead the coordinated international response to the impact of the pandemic upon the global travel and tourism sector, which has so far cost more than 307,000 jobs in the UK alone, with many thousands more still at risk.

Jamaica, which remained on the amber list in the latest update, welcomed 225,037 stopover visitors from the UK in 2019, an increase of 8.4 per cent over the previous year, according to Jamaica Tourist Board data.