 life. Emma, good afternoon. Good afternoon, John. Now then, for people that haven't been away for a couple of years, just the thought of getting to an airport and getting on a plane that fills them, you know, full of excitement, what can they expect? Do they still have to jump through a lot of hoops in order to get abroad? Like for instance, the passenger, the dreaded passenger is that needed in Europe? Things are still changing on a weekly basis at the moment, John. So where we stand at the moment to come back into Ireland, you don't need any proof of vaccination or testing, or you don't have to fill out the passenger locator form anymore. For your listeners as well, Belfast is scrapping their restrictions in passenger locator form from the 18th of March, from 4am on the 18th of March. So I know that a lot of people travel both through Belfast and Dublin. So inbound from your holiday, there is nothing to do and nothing to show or prove for entry. However, we still are looking at there is COVID restrictions in terms of your COVID cert, which is either testing, proof of recovery, or full vaccination. And certain countries are still looking for the quality of their health declaration or passenger locator form entry into, I suppose, the most popular country set that Irish people are going to at the moment, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France. So to cut a long story short, you need a COVID cert or proof of recovery. Exactly, to go to most European countries at the moment. Now Iceland and Switzerland, along with Ireland and the UK, they are all now fully, there's no restrictions anymore, but the rest of the European countries still have them. I do think that this will change, but it just does not have, hasn't come into play yet. So where people might have been travelling after Christmas, they would have had, you know, extra things to do out and back. Now we're only looking at doing them out. And we do hope that by the summer months, this will be eliminated as well for entry into the main summer destinations. Yeah, we're in the middle of March now, so come the summer months when most people would be travelling, you would expect them to at the very least have eased further and maybe disappeared in some countries. Yeah, I would expect a lot of them to follow suit especially as the, you know, the milder weather comes in and come out of the winter season. I think as well, I know that there was two main reasons for them being lifted here, and one was to help the Ukrainian refugees that if they needed to come to Ireland, but also to open the doors for inbound tourism and remove any restrictions for visitors coming to Ireland. Now the rates of COVID in very indifferent countries, and are there any countries that we should be overly concerned about in Europe? In Europe, not necessarily, not at the moment. We're at a stage where we're living with COVID now. So you still have to be doubly vaccinated to get into most European countries, and you have to have your booster if your second vaccination date is older than 270 days. So with that protection in mind, that is as much protection that can be in place for anybody, whether it's Ireland or whether it's abroad. So we're definitely, we've moved on to a different phase where it's preventing us from doing stuff. It's just being aware of possible restrictions that may be in resort. For example, in Spain at the moment, you still need to wear a mask indoors and on public transport. In France and in Italy, you also need your COVID certs to get into certain dining venues. So there's still use for the COVID cert and that will offer people that little bit of extra layer of protection. So it's not getting caught out and being informed of the requirements to get into a country. I don't think the levels of COVID where Irish travellers are going on their leisure vacations, I don't think that there's any elevated areas that would be any higher than what we are in Ireland at the moment. But just to stress again, the COVID cert is still important. And if it's older than nine months, 270 days, then you just need to have proof of a booster. And the restrictions, I mean, there's, you know, they're aware curfews, bars and restaurants closing down at a certain time, but they're easy now. So things, you know, you might be asked for your COVID cert in different places or you might have to wear your mask until you get into a seat, but the restrictions are easing. They are. They definitely are easing. We are a little bit ahead of the curve here in Ireland where masks are, I suppose we would say, voluntary now because there are a lot of people still wearing them indoors and shops and stuff like that. So if we were to step back three or four weeks, that's what it is like in a lot of resorts. I'm just back from Spain myself two weeks ago. And we did have to wear masks when entering a restaurant or a bar or getting into a taxi, but nothing outdoors. So like, we did not feel put upon by those restrictions because we're so used to having them here. But, you know, there are more restrictions. People just need to be aware of that in resorts at the moment. But it's such a hit the phrase a fluid situation, but things are really likely to change, you know, in the next coming weeks and months. And where can we keep an eye on the situation? Like, you know, different countries. Is there one website, one app that we can go to that would give us an idea of what's in place? Yeah. ReopenEU is an excellent source of information. It's where the DFA actually feed their information through. So it's reopen.eu and you can either access their website, or people can download the app onto their phone. And in that it offers advice on travel restrictions for both minors and adults into certain countries. But you can also put in your travel plan. So if you plan to travel from Dublin to a certain country, it'll give you the outbound and inbound restrictions. And we've been chatting about Europe. What about the United States? What's the current situation there? We're still for the United States and Australia. You still need a pretest to enter. So you have to be vaccinated and you also have to have a test within 24 hours of entry of sorry of the time you get on your flight from Ireland. So if you're due to fly out at midday from Dublin, you have to have the test 24 hours within your flight departure. Well, all the talk at the moment obviously is about the cost of living. How is that impacted across Europe? And how will things like the price of fuel and food going up impact our holidays? Have prices of holidays gone up as a consequence? We haven't seen that just yet. A lot of airlines pre-purchase their fuel 12 months in advance, but we will. It's inevitable that there will be an impact from that. And as well electricity and all of those operating costs are rising across Europe. So it's not just ourselves. So we do have to be realistic and expect some increase. Now, we haven't seen anything just yet for immediate departures, but I'm sure that it will come in just given given some time. And where are you seeing the popular locations this year? Are they the normal spots of Spain and Portugal? Yeah, people this year are opting for shorter flight times. So it's definitely within Europe unless it's for a honeymoon or for the planned, you know, a long haul trip for a long time. But most of the family holidays and the getaways, it's all within, you know, three and a half hour flight or less. Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy and France are all top sellers. There's particular value at the moment for from mid-May to mid-June, July and August are always peak months, and they're always the most expensive months to get away. But we are seeing still we still have free child places from early May up until by the 16th, 17th of June for those popular destinations. So it's still value to be got, but it's changing on a daily basis. So if you're planning to get away, you need to book it. Okay, okay. Well, there's not always the way, but you'd think that suppliers would be very keen to get people back. They've had two terrible years and that the value would be really good and that, you know, prices will be kept low to try to encourage people to come. They are, they are in those off peak months. So July and August, you would have had people firstly transferring their 2020 holiday to 2021 and sometimes then onto 22. So that would have taken some capacity out of the market. And then you would have had people that knew that they were going to travel they booked early. So it's about capacity in terms of seats and flights that drive the price up for those months, because there's not very much left. But if you're looking at May or June, like we have, we have stuff for family of four to Spain for under a thousand pounds sterling out of Belfast for your flights transfer as accommodation. So it's, it's not in the peak peak summer months. But if you're flexible with your days, there is certainly value to be, to be had for this year. Okay. But the advice as always is to check out what's available and book as early as you can. Book early, that's the key. All right. Emma McHugh of Atlantic Travel. Thanks a million. Appreciate it Emma. Thank you.