Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that the public could now “start to think” about foreign holidays this summer.

The Transport Secretary said it was the first time in “many months” he was not advising against foreign travel.

On Friday Mr Shapps announced a “framework” for the resumption of overseas leisure travel, which included requiring all arrivals to take pre-departure and post-arrival coronavirus tests.

Post-arrival tests must be the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) type which cost about £120, he said.

This led to a furious backlash from the travel industry, which wants travellers returning from low-risk countries to be allowed to take lateral flow tests, which are cheaper and quicker.

Asked if people could start to book foreign holidays now, he told Sky News: “I’m not telling people that they shouldn’t book summer holidays now, it’s the first time that I’ve been able to say that for many months.

“But I think everybody doing it understands there are risks with coronavirus and of course actually, I think people would want to be clear about which countries are going to be in the different traffic light system.

“So there is only two or three weeks to wait before we publish that list itself. But yes, tentative progress, for the first time, people can start to think about visiting loved ones abroad, or perhaps a summer holiday.

“But we’re doing it very, very cautiously, because we don’t want to see any return of coronavirus in this country.”

His comments come in the same week Downing Street published guidance urging people “not to book summer holidays abroad until the picture is clearer”.

He added: “Costs are definitely a concern, it’s one of the factors this year, and we have to accept we’re still going through a global pandemic.

“And so we do have to be cautious and I’m afraid that does involve having to have some tests and the like.

“But, I am undertaking today to drive down the costs of those tests and looking at some innovative things we could do.”

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, the industry body representing UK-registered carriers, said the announcement “does not represent a reopening of travel as promised by ministers”.

Current travel restrictions will be “formally reviewed” on June 28 to take account of “the domestic and international health picture and to see whether current measures could be rolled back”, the Department for Transport (DfT) said.

Further reviews will take place no later than July 31 and October 1.

Mr Shapps added that there should be a “bit more notice” on countries moving out of the “green” list.

“The green watchlist is designed to help people to get some forward guidance,” he told Sky News.

“Now, I can’t guarantee that that will always be absolutely 100% available, we may have to make very quick decisions as we had to last year.

“If you have for example a variation in the coronavirus, you usually have at least a couple of weeks whilst you’re sequencing that to see whether it’s actually a variation of concern, where the mutation is more significant.

“And so that will give people a period of time to potentially know, so that’s the first thing, we should have a bit more notice this year.”