The end of the Brexit transition period is just around the corner. Brexit will lead to many changes across the country, especially when it comes to travelling to Europe. For example, currently, Britons jetting off to EU nations are protected by the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). However, once the UK ends its transition period on December 31, the EHIC will no longer be valid for Britons.
While this may come as a blow for many British holidaymakers, Indie Campers has suggested that Brexit will actually have a positive impact on their business.
The campervan hire company based in Portugal has said that although there were concerns as to how this would effect their business, coronavirus has meant that more people are travelling domestically anyway.
Indie Campers’ Marketing Lead for UK & Ireland Pernille Hembre and Marketing Assistant for English speaking Markets Melita Dsouza spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk about the impact of Brexit.
Ms Hembre said: “A year ago I would have said it [Brexit] would have had a lot of impact.
“But seeing the latest travel patterns, where we’re seeing that despite the travel restrictions [because of COVID-19], we still have a lot of British customers now travelling in the UK.
“Obviously, we don’t know exactly how travel restrictions will be but with the trend stuff now, despite everything, people are still renting our vans just now in the UK.
“We are in the travel industry but there will also be a general thing where if there are travel restrictions everywhere, people might be more tempted to explore things at home as we’ve seen this summer.”
Ms Dsouza explained that Indie Campers has experienced a peak in domestic travel which has placated any concerns that the company had over Brexit’s impact on travel.
She said: “Domestic travel has been at an all-time peak for us so we’re not really worried anymore about Brexit.
“It really worked out well this year for us in terms of people travelling within the UK.
Ms Hembre added that this year Indie Campers has seen “the British people rediscovering the UK”.
“I think this could be the start of something, especially if there are travel restrictions put in place because of Brexit,” she added.
Director of Content at The Points Guy UK Nicky Kelvin said that travel to Europe will be greatly impacted by Brexit.
“The UK will still be officially leaving the EU on 31 December 2020, following its one-year grace period,” he told Express.co.uk.
He continued: “One side effect of this is that travel to Europe for UK citizens is about to get much more restrictive.”
He explained that the UK government has launched a campaign to help Britons prepare for the changes that are to come post-Brexit.
“Travelling is about to become a lot less straightforward,” he began
He continued: “It’s vital to know the changes coming so you don’t get turned away from a country’s borders.
“It’s important to keep in mind that the restrictions could still change after January 1, so it’s important to keep checking for updates as the transition period ends.”
Some of the changes include passports, healthcare abroad, border controls, travelling with large sums of money and mobile networks.
The latest data from Indie Campers shows a 350 percent increase in British people booking trips in the UK, compared to last year.
The company has found that the most popular destinations for UK customers this year are London and Edinburgh, followed by Lisbon and Milan.
However, Lisbon and Milan have less than a third of the bookings compared to the UK locations.
