Hello and thanks for joining me. It's Monday the 7th of June and here's the latest on travel and destinations from the Greenlist and the travel desk of the Independent, or rather today York Station, one of the key hubs on the rail network.

Today it's been revealed by one of the leading travel bosses that some business owners are losing their homes as a result of travel restrictions imposed after the coronavirus pandemic.

Airline executives are unsurprisingly saying there should be more flying between the UK and the US.

And I'll give you a brief review on how train travel is looking.

Of course, this podcast is completely free, as is my weekly travel email.

You can sign up at independent.co.uk forward slash newsletters.

So Mark Tanzer, who's the chief executive of Abta,

the Travel Association, has been telling MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that as a result of the government not agreeing to open up travel, that unfortunately travel businesses are losing their livelihoods

and some owners are losing their homes. They've taken out mortgages to fund the business

and that's now due, he said. He called for people who have been vaccinated to be given some kind of light touch so that they

do not need to go through the increasing testing regime. Coming back from Gibraltar, you may recall,

you have to pay about 30 pounds to leave the Gibraltar to get on the plane and another 70 or so when you come back.

He reiterated calls from travel bosses to say that actually it is ridiculous.

We are now putting people in the position of having to have extraordinary expense on top of the cost of the holiday.

He said that was pricing normal families out of the market.

So, are the MPs going to take much notice?

I think they will.

Will the government, well, not according to Grant Shaps, he's the

Transport Secretary. When he announced increased travel restrictions last Thursday, he said

the public has always known travel will be different this year and we must continue to take

a cautious approach to reopening international travel in a way that protects public health and the vaccine rollout.

But Mark Katanzer said, I find it very difficult to understand why we have the highest vaccination

...