BRITS planning a staycation to get around the foreign travel ban have had their plans scrapped overnight, as Boris Johnson ordered all holiday accommodation to shut.
In a speech to the country yesterday evening, the PM ordered a mass lockdown – closing all non-essential shops and banning gatherings of more than two people.
In a speech to the country yesterday evening, the PM specifically targeted the UK travel industry
He also specifically targeted the UK travel industry, ordering businesses that provided accommodation for commercial or leisure use to close.
In the government brief, it said: “Last week, the Government ordered certain businesses – including pubs, cinemas and theatres – to close.
“The Government is now extending this requirement to a further set of businesses and other venues, including: hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, campsites, caravan parks, and boarding houses for commercial/leisure use (excluding permanent residents and key workers).”
The exclusion for properties with permanent residents will include boarding houses where families are living due to homelessness.
It also applies to hotels that have opened their doors to NHS workers, who the government classify as key workers.
Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs are allowing the NHS to use both their hotels free of charge over the coming months.
Brits planning a staycation to get around the foreign travel ban have had their plans scrapped overnight (stock image)
GG Hospitality has closed Manchester residences Hotel Football and the Stock Exchange, and opened up all 176 beds to NHS workers.
Similarly,Roman Abramovich is making the Millennium Hotel at Stamford Bridge available to hospital staff who are tirelessly working around the clock during the coronavirus crisis.
All travel on roads, trains and buses was also banned unless it’s essential to get to work.
Brits were also ordered not to meet up with friends and to go out to buy food or to exercise just once a day.
Anyone who flouts the new crackdown will face fines of up to £1,000 or even arrest when cops are given emergency powers.
The draconian measures which will change every aspect of Brits’ lives included:
- All gatherings of more than two people in public were forbidden – meaning a ban on all social events, including weddings and baptisms
- Tens of thousands of non-essential shops were ordered to close
- Communal play and exercise areas inside parks will also be shut down, but not parks themselves
- Places of worship such as churches and mosques must also shut, except to host for funerals
- Travel on roads, trains and buses was also banned, unless it’s essential to get to work.
The new measures on holiday accommodation were brought in just a day after the government told people to stay “in their primary residence” due to coronavirus.
That meant all visits to holiday homes, hotels, camp sites, caravan parks or similar were advised against.
However, these measures go several steps further by closing the properties in question.
Following a sunny weekend where thousands of Brits headed to the beach, coastal resorts have also appealed to the public to stay away.
West Wittering beach in West Sussex was forced to close because of the crowds, while people flocked to the beach at Whitstable, Kent.
Others spilled onto the beach at Lyme Regis while Bournemouth and Brighton were rammed with day-trippers, runners and bikers and the Visit Cornwall tourist board asked people to postpone their visits to a later date.
The National Trust was among those forced to close all of its parks and gardens after huge crowds gathered.
The news came just days after Haven announced it had closed all of their parks until next month due to coronavirus.
Butlins also announced that it was closing until mid-April because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The holiday company has shut down all three of its UK resorts in Minehead, Bognor Regis and Skegness from March 20 until April 16.
Center Parcs was one of the first to announce it was closing all of their UK villages from March 20 until April 16.