According to a report by the BBC, Nina Gurd and her family lost £3,000 on the holiday due to the passport date.

“The lady at Bournemouth Airport said it needs to be within 10 years of the issue date,” she told the BBC.

She added: "When we were booking our holiday, we were only ever asked for our passport numbers and the expiry dates, nothing else.

"But the expiry date is apparently meaningless."

According to the BBC, prior to Brexit, travellers from the UK could travel within the area without border controls as the country was a member of the European Union, although Britain was not part of the Schengen Agreement.

Issue date

The article adds that now some EU countries in the Schengen Area are insisting passports must be no more than 10 years old from the point of issue. Once the three-month expiry buffer is taken into account, a passport needs to have been issued no more than nine years and nine months ago.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told the BBC that the advice published on its website has, for several years, warned travellers they may face problems if they have a passport that lasts longer than 10 years.

“Meaningless” expiry date

Mr Gurd told the BBC that the advice was "all incredibly vague".

"Given there is this new rule, it should be easy enough for the government, travel companies and airlines to ask the right questions. It should be being flagged," he added.

"We've got to get the message out there that actually the expiry date on your passport is meaningless."