Holiday bookings soared yesterday after punitive travel restrictions were finally lifted.
Within minutes of the official announcement, travel agents were deluged with inquiries and predicted this weekend would be their busiest of the year.
Demand for October half-term trips was three times higher than in August as firms slashed prices.
Turkey and the Maldives, both removed from the red list yesterday, were among the most sought after destinations.
The traffic light system is also being replaced with a simpler 'go/no-go' regime with far less coronavirus testing.
The fully vaccinated will no longer have to pay for costly PCR swabs or pre-return tests.
Instead they will need to purchase only a cheaper lateral flow test within two days of returning, taking a free PCR swab if this is positive.
The shake-up means testing bills faced by families will be slashed by hundreds of pounds.
The only destinations that will remain off limits for the double jabbed are on the red list. All arrivals from these countries will still have to quarantine in hotels for 11 nights on arrival in England at a cost of £2,285, regardless of vaccination status.
The rule changes will apply to visiting foreigners jabbed with UK-recognised vaccines, meaning a boost to domestic businesses starved of tourist spending.
The new regime will be introduced in three steps, starting with eight countries being removed from the red list at 4am on Wednesday.
Pre-return tests will be scrapped for the double jabbed on October 4, when the new 'go/no-go' system will come into force.
The traffic light system will remain until then. Costly PCR swabs will then be ditched for the fully vaccinated towards the end of October.
The changes to the travel rules came as:
The vaccine booster programme got under way yesterday, with a maternity support worker among the first to receive the jab; Industry leaders warned that care homes will be forced to shut, break the law or drop standards if ministers fail to push back the deadline for compulsory jabs; Nicola Sturgeon has called in the British Army to deal with Scotland's ambulance crisis after she was forced to apologise for life-threatening delays; A survey found that a majority of people believe workers will never return to the office full-time after the pandemic; The latest figures showed that Covid infections appear to be falling in all regions of England, even after children have returned to school.
Ministers today announced they are replacing the current international travel traffic light scheme with a simplified 'go and no-go' system as they also scrapped pre-departure tests for fully-vaccinated travellers returning to England
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that from October 4 the current approach of green, amber and red will be ditched in favour of a single red list of banned countries and a 'rest of the world' category for everywhere else.
Ministers did not specify a date but said they were aiming to have this in place 'for when people return from half-term breaks'.
Another crucial change means passengers who transit through a red-list destination, having been in a safe country, will not be subjected to hotel quarantine.
The unvaccinated face even tougher rules under the new regime in a bid by ministers to encourage more people to get jabbed.
Even when returning from countries on the 'go' list, they will have to isolate at home for ten days and take PCR tests on days two and eight.
They will still have the option of taking an extra post-arrival PCR test on the fifth day to be released from self-solation early.
MPs and the travel industry welcomed the shake-up, having warned for weeks that failure to overhaul the system could lead to thousands more job losses.
But some questioned why ministers were not scrapping PCR tests for the double jabbed for another month, and stepped up calls for all testing to be scrapped.
Alan French, chief executive of Thomas Cook, was among those reporting a bookings rush.
He said: 'The news today is a shot in the arm for both the travel industry and families up and down the country who are crying out for some much-needed late summer sun. Based on our bookings already today, I would expect this weekend to be the biggest of the year so far.
'Bookings for October half-term are up more than 200 per cent compared to August as people lock in great prices for beach breaks in their favourite Mediterranean sunspots.'
Package holiday giant Jet2.com also reported a bookings bonanza.
Chief executive Steve Heapy said: 'There has been an immediate and massive surge in bookings for flights and package holidays on the back of this welcome news for holidaymakers in England.'
The carrier will resume flights to Turkey from Thursday next week.
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: 'By reducing the number of red-list destinations and scrapping PCR testing, ministers have paved the way for people to get away this October half-term and into the winter following 18 months of uncertainty.'
John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow, added: 'This simplification of the travel rules is very welcome for businesses and families across the country but the decision to require fully vaccinated passengers to take more costly private lateral flow tests is an unnecessary barrier to travel, which keeps the UK out of step with the rest of the EU.'
Travel firms were offering discounts of more than a third on holidays to traditional hotspots such as Spain, Greece and Portugal.
The shake-up will apply to England only, with Scotland last night saying it would not follow suit.
Holyrood said it had 'concerns at the impact on public health' of the changes and would not be adopting them. Wales and Northern Ireland have not yet said whether they will fall in line.
In a further boost for families, the new regime will carry over the current rules on children. It means under-18s will be treated as though they are fully jabbed, even if they are not.
However, returning holidaymakers will still be required to fill in a passenger locator form before travelling back to England.
They will need to prove they have ordered a day two lateral flow test and input their order number into the form. Free NHS lateral flow tests will not be available.
Announcing the move last night, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: 'Today's changes mean a simpler, more straightforward system.'
Hated travel testing rules are to be torn up for the fully jabbed in time for the half-term holidays - but unvaccinated Britons will still have to quarantine on their return. Library image
Those who are unvaccinated face even tougher restrictions. They will have to quarantine on their return from all countries, even though on the 'go' list. Insiders hope the strategy will help to drive up vaccination rates
All current 'amber list' countries will effectively become green – or 'go' destinations –while the number of 'red list', or 'no-go' countries, will be slashed in half. This means popular holiday destinations such as Turkey are likely to open up to fully jabbed Britons next month
The shake-up means that the amber list is officially dead, with those countries joining 'green' nations in the new 'rest of the world' category.
The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK also welcomed the changes, with chief executive Dale Keller saying: 'Greater freedom of movement for many vaccinated passengers, without the anxiety of pre-departure tests and the high cost of PCR testing on arrival, will help restore traveller confidence and set the aviation, travel and tourism sectors on what is still a long road to recovery.'
Mr Keller said moving to a binary system and creating a 'two-tier entry regime' based on vaccination status will help bring 'greater clarity to entry requirements'.
He said the announcement is a 'step towards properly rebalancing international travel risk' in the UK but warned the existing rules had 'decimated' passenger numbers which means firms must now try to 'claw back lost ground'.
British Airways chief executive and chairman Sean Doyle urged the Government to go further and sweep away all testing requirements for fully-vaccinated travellers.
Huw Merriman, the Tory chairman of the Transport Select Committee, also welcomed the overhaul of the 'cumbersome' existing rules.
'The need for caution is clear but with 80 per cent of our country now vaccinated, UK travel needs a shot in the arm and this could be it,' he said.
'It's a relief to see the Government move on these issues and this announcement, timed ahead of October half-term, could have an immediate impact on the UK's travel industry.'
Mr Shapps said the new system was 'proportionate' and 'reflects the new landscape' of the numbers of those who are fully-vaccinated.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: 'Today we have simplified the travel rules to make them easier to understand and follow, opening up tourism and reducing the costs to go abroad.
'As global vaccination efforts continue to accelerate and more people gain protection from this dreadful disease, it is right that our rules and regulations keep pace.'
The Department for Transport confirmed the eight countries coming off the red list as of 4am on Wednesday are Turkey, Pakistan, the Maldives, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bangladesh and Kenya.
British Airways chief executive and chairman Sean Doyle welcomed the changes but urged ministers to go further.
He said: 'We welcome the simplification of the traffic light system, and the changes to the testing requirements allowing UK travellers to benefit from our world-leading vaccination programme and finally giving customers and business the confidence to book the journeys they've been waiting for.
'Based on the scientific evidence, with fewer than one per cent of people returning from low-risk countries testing positive for Covid (lower than the UK's rate), we urge ministers to keep this policy under review, eliminating all testing for fully vaccinated travellers as soon as possible in the future, in line with most other European countries.'
Stewart Wingate, chief executive of Gatwick Airport, said the changes were a 'significant and welcome step towards recovery' and a boost for travellers
