UK and EU have "nine months to stop tourism grinding to a halt"

The UK and EU will see tourist traffic ‘grinding to a halt’ in just a few months when new border rules come into force, despite the UK knowing about the issues faced for more than two years. The huge disruption to holidaymakers could be a logistical nightmare, warns the chief of Dover Port.
British tourists headed for weekend getaways in Paris or some winter sun in Spain after September could be hit by new biometric checks set to be required at the border.
If there is no solution offered to the enforcement of these new rules, tourist traffic between the UK and EU through the crucial ferry port will grind to a halt, chief executive Doug Bannister told the PA news agency.
Previously there have also been fears the new border checks could lead to 17-mile tailbacks in Dover – and time could be running out to fix the problem. Mr Bannister told PA that they spotted the issue two years ago, but so far no fix appears to have been agreed by the UK and French governments.
As the rules stand currently, all travellers will have to get out of their vehicles to undergo biometric checks at the border, causing massive delays and safety concerns. He said: “As it stands right now, nobody has got a process for a car load of people on a dark stormy night going through a ferry terminal.
“So if we had to follow the airport process in the ferry port, that would entail people exiting their vehicle in the middle of busy traffic lanes. “That would be unsafe and we just couldn’t allow that to happen.”
He says the issue can only be solved by governments striking a deal, perhaps involving a new piece of technology to allow people to pass through the port between the UK and EU quickly and safely. When quizzed on what would happen without a fix being agreed before the deadline, Mr Bannister said “that basically means that traffic has to stop”. “It would be unsafe to do anything otherwise”, he said, adding that it would be different for freight traffic.
Mr Bannister said he does not believe it will come to that, but emphasised the need for a solution.

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