Jamaica will prohibit residents from leaving their homes for seven days spread over three weekends to contain an upsurge in coronavirus infections and shield its healthcare system, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. The Caribbean nation has been battling a third wave of infections, with the presence of the highly contagious Delta variant confirmed on the island.

"Our case numbers are unacceptably high and rising, and the rate of hospitalization is beyond - and I want to stress this - beyond the capacity of our health system, to cope," Holness recently told a virtual news conference.

The Days Out by Rail campaign, coordinated by Community Rail Network, aims to inspire and encourage day-trippers and leisure travellers to jump aboard a train, for exciting, fun, eco-friendly outings. Days Out by Rail draws on local insights and ideas from community rail, a grassroots movement spanning Britain, which involves communities and volunteers with their local railways and stations.

The initiative is raising awareness about rail as one of the greenest ways to travel – especially combined with walking, cycling and buses – avoiding traffic jams, parking and pollution. The campaign encourages people to leave the car at home and take the train to cut carbon emissions by two thirds, while enabling exploration of lesser-known spots as part of a day out, short break or staycation.

With so many of us planning trips closer to home, online motorhome insurance price comparison specialist The Insurers has crunched its data to pinpoint where ‘staycationers’ will be setting off from this summer – and the research reveals that footloose retirees are most likely to be hitting the UK’s roads this year. 

The results, taken over a 12-month period up to May 2021, show that retirees accounted for a whopping 57 per cent of all quotes processed by The Insurers, followed by HGV drivers and builders, respectively.  

Leading UK travel company, Barrhead Travel, plans to have a “wellness champion” in every store by the end of the year. The initiative, which was originally launched two years ago, is accelerating to deal with the knock-on effects of the pandemic. 

The rollout of the key plan to help the company’s people follows the valued experience of existing champions in the business’s stores and offices. The business launched their original Wellness Steering Programme in 2019 as it pledged to prioritise the health and wellbeing of its employees across the business. 

Leading UK travel agency, Barrhead Travel, is set to host its first hybrid cruise event this weekend from Friday August 27 to Monday August 30. The travel group held virtual events during pandemic to continue to “inspire and inform” their customers.

Following positive feedback from virtual event attendees, the Glasgow-based travel agency is easing back to face-to-face events with a hybrid concept for its flagship summer cruise event. Pre-pandemic, the agency hosted annual exhibitions in its Glasgow city-centre superstore, which would welcome between 300 and 500 customers throughout the course of each event. During lockdown, the travel group invited customers to join them for a virtual exhibition, bringing inspiration and expertise to living rooms across the country.

Of the millions of people clogging airport security lines, passport control and gate areas, one crowd is still largely missing: business travellers. Their absence is noteworthy because they are a key source of revenue and profit, underpinning a record-breaking stretch of financial gain for airlines that ended with the coronavirus.

Business travellers tend to pay higher fares, and that is especially true on international flights, which are also still deeply depressed by the pandemic and travel restrictions around the globe. Because their fares subsidize other passengers, experts say their absence is leading to higher leisure fares on many routes.