Britain will allow people in England to resume international travel from May 17 but is limiting the number of destinations open for quarantine-free holidays to just a handful of countries as it cautiously emerges from lockdown restrictions.
Portugal, Israel, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore all made the green list for travel in a system that will be reviewed every three weeks, transport minister Grant Shapps said. Popular destinations such as France, Spain and Greece did not.
Airlines, holiday companies and tourist hotspots in southern Europe have been waiting for over four months for big-spending Britons to start travelling again, but they will have to wait a few months longer for a full rebound to take off.
Left off the list were Spain, France, Italy and the U.S., the top four most visited countries by UK residents in 2019, which all sit in the amber category, requiring self-isolation on return to the UK.
Despite the limitations, permitting travel abroad is still a welcome boost for the beleaguered sector and should prompt bookings. Britons have been banned from going abroad without an essential reason since early January, a blow for leisure travel and also splitting families who live across different countries.
British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, TUI and others will now likely have to wait until next month for the larger scale re-opening they need to repair their COVID-19 battered finances.
They have argued that Britain's vaccination programme, which has outpaced the rest of Europe, should mean the country can allow more travel sooner, but so far the EU's plans are ahead. It has recommended the arrival of foreign travellers from more countries from June.
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I have been an expat twice, 6 years in Portugal and 10 years in France, and in both places it's always the Brits who cause trouble. Those that refuse to integrate the worst. If you think Spain, anywhere will be better without the billions we spend every year then you have just proved my point. The worst are those that don;t work, can't and wont speak the language, and think the whole world is there to run around after them. RV
"International travel to resume on May 17"???? Not to here it won't, - not until June at least at the moment, and hopefully it'll be extended further still.
Spot on Joan, June is too soon, let's get our daily new cases down before we allow tourism back.
Hopefully Spain will extend the ban from June until we get our vaccination levels down to the UK levels. The last thing we need is vistors, vaccinated/tested or otherwise taking us back into lockdown again, we won't have enough of our population vaccinated by June.
I'm with Jimmy too !! Mallorca here we come
I'm with Jimmy. 10 days at home are the least of my worries at the moment. Hope to 'see' you all there in June/July.
Mallorca is a much better place without british people. Stay in your little britain and enjoy your fish and chips.
Jimmy, stay away, its people with an attitude like yours who spread the virus. Stick to Clacton mate. Us ex-pats in Mallorca are quite happy having no tourists thank you very much.
(Corrected) Even if Spain was on the UK's Green list, it only refers the UK's rules. That doesn't mean that you will be allowed to enter Spain under Spanish rules. It seems that a lot of people here haven't grasped that yet....
Even if Spain was on the Green list, it only refers the UK's rules. That doesn't mean that you will be allowed to enter Spain under their rules. It seems that a lot of people here haven't grasped that yet....