IC Travel

Fantastic Day-Trips, Short Breaks and

Luxury Coach Hire from Norwich, Norfolk

9th September 2020

Understanding the New Government Guidance

The government announcement last night and today (8 & 9 September 2020) about social gatherings limited to six people does not put an end to group day trips, holidays and other events.

There has already been confusion over what is allowed when privately and informally planned compared to what a business can now safely and legally offer. The new legal prohibition is designed to enable the authorities to crack down on privately and informally organised gatherings where no social distancing is being observed and comes on the back of rises in positive tests among younger people. Here is the important distinction from the guidance that applies to coach trips and group visits: Businesses and venues following COVID-19 Secure guidelines can host larger groups… Premises or locations which are COVID-19 Secure will be able to hold more than 30 people, subject to their own capacity limits, although any individual groups should not interact with anyone outside of the group they are attending with. In other words, group events are permitted when professionally organised by businesses who have made risk assessments and put in place good practices for Covid safety. It is important, of course, that within the larger group people maintain social distancing between household and bubble groups. As you know IC Travel and ICT Coaches have taken steps to make sure that this can happen. It would be good if the government made particular references to coach trips to help clear up ongoing confusion, especially as our sector has been particularly affected by the pandemic and yet excluded from all the financial supports given to shops, restaurants and other leisure businesses. But it hasn’t happened yet so it is up to us in the group travel sector to keep going and to keep people properly informed.

14th August 2020

Just a quick update from IC Travel and ICT Coaches.

Firstly a big thanks to all of you who have supported our local days out. Numbers have ranged from 7 to 26 (capacity!) and whilst these are loss making for us we are keen to start somewhere and give people the chance to get out and about. As some businesses get back to work it is easy to get the impression that things are getting back to normal. Certainly in our sector this is far from the case and in some ways getting more complicated. Several of you have been in touch concerning past cancelled trips and those due to take place over the coming months. Sadly we have no more information that is generally available and whilst some businesses have returned to work this is often with reduced staff, many of which are working from home with call centres closed. It takes forever it seems to get responses and updates. All I can say is once I know any information I will pass this on as many of you will know. Some intermediary companies have ceased trading which means in some cases we have lost money and/or are having to piece together from scratch. In all of this for our companies we are doing this work in our own unpaid time and a big thanks goes to all those who have lent a hand. So – please bear with us as we work through the list of rescheduling and rebooking – many venues and attractions themselves have no idea if things will take place. Take London West End shows for example which can open it seems but with hardly any audience. It’s all very complicated. Anyway thanks all for your patience and will keep you informed as best we can! Ian