France: Travellers 'raging' at vaccination rules says expert

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The Canary Islands provide one of the most beautiful holiday destinations for Brits and Europeans, thanks to their sunny skies, sandy beaches and beautiful blue sea. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, recreational travel has been off the cards, with many eager for a trip away from home this summer. While international travel was allowed to resume on May 17 as the Government moved to step three of its roadmap out of lockdown. 

The Government has since said it will hold reviews every three weeks in an effort to diversify the travel list and make more countries Green, Red and Amber depending on the ever-changing pandemic situation. 

While the next travel review was expected to come on Thursday, July 14, mounting speculation suggests it will be moved up. 

Nothing has yet been confirmed, but a travel review update could come as early as Wednesday as the Government scrambles to open up travel. 

July 19 will see all remaining social restrictions lifted in England, including that on having to quarantine on return from amber list destinations for people who’ve been fully vaccinated. 

Are Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote on the green list?

The Government is yet to confirm which destinations will be added to the green list. 

Express.co.uk will update this page with the relevant information as soon as it’s known. 

However, many experts believe the Canary Islands will be added to the green list during the next review this week. 

Officials in the Canaries are confident they will be given green list status by the time review is released. 

Spain’s Balearic Islands were previously added to the list of safe countries during the last review in June, with quarantine-free travel beginning on Thursday. 

Now, businesses and tourism officials are demanding similar status for the Canary Islands. 

Tourism minister Yaiza Castilla said “it is very frustrating” that the Canaries have been left off the travel list. 

However, she said she was confident they would be treated differently from mainland Spain which means it could soon get the green light. 

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Ms Castilla said: “The Canary Islands are ready for British tourists, in fact we are eager for more to come. 

“We are prepared, we are also vaccinating ourselves very fast, in order to have a guarantee of health reciprocity. 

“To all the tour operators and travel agents in the UK, we look forward to welcoming your customers back to the Canary Islands very soon.”

UK tourists made up the biggest portion of visitors to the Canaries before the pandemic with five million visitors in 2019. 

However, this has been decimated since the start of the pandemic with the British making up just 1.7 percent of holidaymakers to the Canary Islands so far in 2021. 

Angel Vasquez, minister of Tourism Promotion for Lanzarote, said earlier: “British visitors represent nearly 50 percent of Lanzarote’s total inbound tourism and many hotels in the island are postponing their reopening dates until British tourists are able to visit us again. 

“We want to emphasise that over the last few weeks, the evolution of the pandemic in Lanzarote and the rest of the Canary Islands has improved and we are confident of increasing our vaccination rates in the coming weeks. 

“We continue to direct a large amount of resource towards our tourism sector to enable tourism to restart safely, and we hope to welcome British travellers back to Lanzarote very soon.”

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