BENIDORM hotel bosses fear a ‘disaster’ could hit the city if British tourists are asked to isolate for 14 days on their return to the UK.

Toni Mayor, president of the Benidorm and Costa Blanca hotel association Hosbec, said the news would be a ‘body blow’ for UK tourism.

“I don’t see international holiday flights to Spain resuming till July at the earliest,” he said in a statement.

“If the quarantine were brought in and was still in place by July and August, we can wave goodbye to any hopes of British tourists returning to the Costa Blanca this summer.

“For places like Benidorm that depend so heavily on UK tourists, it would be a disaster.”

The pandemic could also curtail the holiday plans of the over-60s, after travel insurers changed the wording of policies.

Many firms stopped selling travel insurance in March, before now reintroducing policies that exclude claims relating to Covid-19 as it is considered a ‘known event’, report the Mirror.

This means trips booked from now are unlikely to be covered by insurance if the holidaymaker changes their mind – a problem for OAPs most at risk from the virus and most likely to decide to cancel if there was any kind of second wave.

Paul Charles, of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: “Anyone over 60 will be reluctant to travel until there is a vaccine in mass production, at least one year away.”

Any insurance which does cover the virus is likely to be very expensive, he said.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Sunday plans to impose the two-week quarantine rules depend upon ‘a series of big Ifs’.

“It depends on all of us – the entire country – to follow the advice, to observe social distancing, and to keep that R down.

“And to prevent re-infection from abroad, I am serving notice that it will soon be the time – with transmission significantly lower – to impose quarantine on people coming into this country by air.

“And of course we will be monitoring our progress locally, regionally, and nationally and if there are outbreaks, if there are problems, we will not hesitate to put on the brakes.”

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