Covid-19: Tourism body wants clarity over summer holidays

People are "confused" over messaging on summer holidays coming from both health officials and the executive, according to the Northern Ireland Tourism Alliance (NITA).

Health Minister Robin Swann said on Wednesday that foreign travel should be ruled out this summer.

But First Minister Arlene Foster subsequently said it was "too soon" to make a definitive statement.

Joanne Stuart from the NITA said "what doesn't help is speculation".

She said the decisions on restrictions being eased ultimately come from the Stormont Executive and that proposals from health are factored into those decisions.

• Foreign travel 'should be ruled out this summer'

• More than 700,000 vaccine first doses given in NI

"But the health information and scientific information is one part of how those decisions are made, so when you get these speculative comments, it does confuse people," she told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

Ms Stuart said the earliest they expected international travel to be able to open would be 17 May and that NITA was working with government officials around the potential opening of travel throughout the UK for the summer.

On Thursday, Brian Ambrose, chief executive of Belfast City Airport, said "ministers and senior civil servants must carefully consider the severe economic consequences of their public comments".

"As an airport we would never challenge decisions made by the health minister in relation to the running of the health service," he said.

"However, we would expect decisions on international air travel to emanate from the NI Executive, rather than the health minister or an adviser."

Dr Deepti Gurdasani a clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London, told the same programme that it would be "dangerous" to open up international travel at this point due to the risk from coronavirus variants.

"What we fully expect is that things won't get better, they will get worse looking at the trends that are ongoing right now," she said.

"The plan articulated by government is actually not focussed on controlling transmission at all, it is solely focussed on vaccination.

"So the trajectory is quite predictable from here, sadly."