Travel: Richard Madeley questions the 'point' of list system
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The UK has released an update on the travel restrictions and decided to keep most European countries on the amber list, Spain among them, despite being the country one the safest destinations for tourism. Portugal has also been removed from the green list.
The increase in the number of infections in the UK in recent days has led experts to request travel restrictions to be maintained.
The new travel list will take effect within a week, to give tourists who are already there a reasonable period of time to plan their return.
Spain is staying on the amber list, which means that holiday in the country is not permitted.
Despite having some of the Spanish territories, like Benidorm or the Balearic Islands, very low Covid infection rates, the UK has decided to keep the current travel restrictions with the country.
The Government has even increased its caution and has removed Portugal from the “green list”.
This is a blow to the tourism industry, especially for the Mediterranean countries like Spain, which were hoping to be included on the green list in today’s review.
The Mayor of Benidorm, one of the regions that are struggling because of these measures, said that “British tourism is essential for Benidorm.”
Neither the Balearic Islands nor the Canary Islands have made it either, despite their expectations after asking the UK’s Government to be treated separately.
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Britons travelling to amber list countries will have to quarantine on return and pay for at least three PCR tests.
The Government has already made it clear that people should not be travelling to amber countries if it’s not for essential reasons.
Spain has been in conversation with the UK Government for weeks to enter the long-awaited green list, which allows Britons to travel without having to quarantine on return.
On May 24, Spain announced that it was going to open its borders and allow UK tourists to enter without restrictions. The country has been pushing to get on the UK’s green list, without success.
Spanish president, Pedro Sanchez said this week: “It seems difficult for them to expand the green list with the internal differences that they are having with the de-escalation.
“Despite this, we are convinced that by the end of the month we will be there, among other things thanks to the downward trend of the accumulated incidence in our country.”
This decision will have a huge impact on the tourism sector, since many companies and tour operators planned their return to activity from the middle of the month.
Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said that it was “absolutely imperative” that “major tourist destinations” such as Greece and Spain were added to the UK green list this week.
After this update, everything is now delayed.
Following the latest review, Portugal, which was included on the green list a few weeks ago, has now been moved to the amber list.
Seven countries have been moved to the red list, meaning travelling is not permitted and those who come back to the UK from these destinations, a mandatory 10 day hotel quarantine is required.
The now red list countries are Egypt, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Bahrain, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago and Afghanistan.
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