Home Horizon Brexit’s Effect On British Travellers: What You Should Know

Brexit’s Effect On British Travellers: What You Should Know

by LaurettaCWright
Brexit's Effect On British Travellers

Will Brexit’s effect on British travellers be cause for concern? Whatever your views on Brexit, there’s no denying that when the UK leaves the EU in March 2019, we’ll have to get used to certain changes.

But what exactly will these changes be? And will it all go pear-shaped? Not necessarily according to the CEO of Loco2, Dave Ashton, who has dispelled six myths for British holidaymakers.

Here, we take a closer look at some of the concerns people have post-Brexit, which range from having to pay for data roaming on our mobiles, to applying for visas.

1) Trains will be stopped from traveling to Europe

This won’t happen. Eurostar has 70% market share on the London to Paris and London to Brussels routes, and carries more than 10 million passengers annually. Eurostar has a monopoly on train travel to and from the UK/Europe and their cross-border process is laid out clearly: all travellers must already pass through customs for both the UK and the EU before boarding a Eurostar train bound for the Channel Tunnel. That process won’t change in future.
Resulting Brexit Impact: Nul

2) Brits will need visas to travel to Europe

This unintelligible gobbledygook helps explain who needs a visa to visit various European countries and who doesn’t. That gobbledygook is unlikely to change. Brits don’t need a visa to visit Europe today and – barring a catastrophic security or military problem – won’t need one in the future either. In the two years since the Brexit vote no government of any European country has credibly suggested making it harder for Britons to travel there as a tourist. A new EU travel authorisation scheme, going live in 2020, will require visitors from outside the EU to register on a website and pay €7.
Resulting Brexit Impact: You might have to pay €7.

3) Travel insurance costs will rise

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) entitles UK citizens to free or reduced-cost treatment in EU countries. It doesn’t have the same benefits as travel insurance, but if you have one, many travel insurance policies will waive the excess payment on a claim. This agreement may need to be renegotiated, which could impact prices for individual travel insurance policies. But Brexit is unlikely to significantly impact the price of such policies, and few Britons buy them anyway.
Resulting Brexit Impact: Nul

4) Mobile data costs will return

Roaming charges for mobile calls or data access were abolished in the UK and the EU in May 2017, and mobile network providers have been quick to  reassure UK customers that they have no intention to go back to the days of closed networks based on national borders. For example, last March Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said it would “not be very logical” for Brexit to drive the reintroduction of roaming charges for Britons traveling in Europe. Mobile roaming charges for Brits in Europe are not coming back.
Resulting Brexit Impact: Nul

My 'go-to' list of companies that offer great deals to Europe

- Booking.com - easyJet Holidays - ebookers.com - Eurocamp - G Adventures - Icelolly.com  
- Just Go Holidays - Lastminute.com - Omega Breaks - On The Beach 
- Teletext Holidays - Travelsphere - Travelsupermarket - Travelzoo 

5) Holidays will be more expensive

Before June, investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted that a vote to leave the EU could hit sterling by as much as 20%, with the pound dipping as low as $1.15 against the dollar and €1.05 against the euro. Though there was a sharp decline in the pound’s value vs the Euro two years ago, since then the pound has held its value and there’s no reason to believe this will change. In other words, the market has already absorbed the expectation of Brexit and there is no evidence to suggest Pan-European train (or air) ticket prices will rise post-Brexit.
Resulting Brexit Impact: TBC, but probably nothing significant.

6) It will be more difficult to travel in Europe

This won’t happen. Customs and immigration checks are already required for Brits when arriving in Europe (and arriving into the UK from Europe), and the idea that European countries would single out Brits for tougher border treatment post-Brexit is far-fetched. We will simply continue to show our passports on arrival, as we do now.
Resulting Brexit Impact: Nul

So should we be concerned?

According to Ashton, any fuss about Brexit leading to disrupted travel for Brits is just fearmongering designed to generate clicks.

He says “There is no point in guessing what might happen when everything is on hold – let’s just focus on the things that will remain the same (or pretty much the same) and be positive about our future holidays in 2019.”

Sounds like sage advice to me.

I’d love to know what you think? Are you fears about Brexit allayed – or do you think that we’ll be on the receiving end of some negative impacts that come with leaving the EU?  

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20 comments

Chris 30th October 2018 - 1:19 pm

I really think it is a case of waiting to see what happens instead of speculation. A hard Brexit would have a really bad affect, I agree

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LaurettaCWright 30th October 2018 - 5:25 pm

Thanks Chris – now it’s just a waiting game to see what happens…

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cheryl hadfield 4th October 2018 - 9:51 pm

I think there is far too much scaremongering mainly by the media, my husband works at our local airport and there will be measures brought in that make sure travel is not effected. we must all remember Europe needs our tourism a lot more than we need theirs, if they restrict airspace then so do we.

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LaurettaCWright 5th October 2018 - 7:57 am

Thanks for the comment Cheryl and yes, I tend to agree that there has been a lot os speculation – most of it doom and gloom – about what will happen. And you’re right about lots of countries replying on Brits for their tourism numbers!

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Laura Dove 13th September 2018 - 4:54 pm

Im trying not to give this too much thought until everything is finalised, I think there is a lot of panic about European travel but I think things will be better than we expect!

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LaurettaCWright 15th September 2018 - 6:08 pm

I’m keeping optimistic too Laura! 🙂 The glass is always half full!

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Hannah 13th September 2018 - 12:20 am

I travel a lot so brexit does concern me. Whether or not you voted remain or leave, I think most people can agree that a no deal brexit isnt good. Agreements concerning travel need to be made before leaving. For example what will happen to the current open skies agreement. The deal America offered Britain is worse than what we have already

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michelle twin mum 12th September 2018 - 10:53 pm

I love this post, I am old enough to remmeber travelling before we became part of Europe and I keep reminding people we didn’t need visas before and likely won’t need them after either! Mich x

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Kara Guppy 12th September 2018 - 3:33 pm

I think that travel has become more accessible over the years and that they won’t want us to stop coming to explore Europe, as it will take away much of their income too

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LaurettaCWright 16th September 2018 - 7:01 am

Point well made Kara. A lot of European destinations depend heavily on tourism – making it harder for Brits to holiday there is surely not great for them in the long run.

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Kacie 12th September 2018 - 1:03 pm

I’d love to think that this is all going to be the case although it does make me feel nervous and unsure about the whole thing really.

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lauren porter 12th September 2018 - 12:41 pm

This has helped ease my mind a little, so thank you! It’s so all up in the air at the moment…

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LaurettaCWright 12th September 2018 - 1:20 pm

Glad to hear it Lauren – let’s keep our fingers crossed that Brexit won’t impact too heavily on our day-to-day life!

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MELANIE EDJOURIAN 12th September 2018 - 10:05 am

There are so many rumours flying around i’s hard to know what to believe. Luckily I don’t use my phone much abroad so it would matter either way.

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LaurettaCWright 16th September 2018 - 7:01 am

There’s always Wi-Fi in most larger hotels/establishments too! 🙂

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Lynne Harper 12th September 2018 - 9:51 am

Im so worried about it all as i live in Northern Ireland as I’m worried about the border etc. But i suppose its a waiting game and what will be will be

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Nicolette Lafonseca 11th September 2018 - 9:45 pm

Hmmm so I read that if there is no real before January the house of lords were stopping it but then again it is impossible to wade through brexit news.

I will say that despite legality the atmosphere has changed we lived in paris for 4 years and the mood is different now for my ex pat friends still living there the same for friends who work in Brussels I think it has stirred up emotions that may have an impact or at least a few interesting conversations

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LaurettaCWright 12th September 2018 - 6:52 am

It’s funny you should mention this Nicolette. When we were in Paris a few months ago, my husband (a French teacher) had a huge conversation with the taxi driver about Brexit and also about how the mood has changed in general amongst Parisians. He had to translate it all for me afterwards, but it made for a really interesting discussion. Who knows what will happen in all truth – and how people will react – but it will be interesting to live through a piece of history that future generations will be studying!

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Charli 11th September 2018 - 4:49 pm

The reality is, until a deal is struck and it happens, no one really knows. It all conjecture, some educated and some not.

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LaurettaCWright 12th September 2018 - 6:46 am

Yes, you’re right of course Charli. However, I tend to agree that things won’t be as bad as some think, but we’ll just have to wait and see…

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