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Holiday season back on with travel ‘traffic light’ plan

More than 15 countries to be opened for tourists
Quarantine-free travel will be allowed to countries including Spain from July 6
Quarantine-free travel will be allowed to countries including Spain from July 6
ALAMY

Britons are about to be given the go-ahead to have summer holidays in more than 15 countries in a significant easing of the government’s travel restrictions.

Ministers will announce on Wednesday a new “traffic light” system that allows travel to certain low-risk countries without the need to go into quarantine for two weeks on return.

Large parts of Europe will be open to British holidaymakers for the first time in more than three months, with quarantine-free travel allowed to countries including France, Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany and Croatia from July 6.

It is hoped that a reciprocal agreement will be brokered with Australia and New Zealand, although this is unlikely for several weeks.

Portugal will not initially feature on the list of quarantine-free countries after a recent rise in Covid-19 cases led to lockdown conditions being imposed in Lisbon, the capital.

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Under the change all Britons will have to supply an address and a telephone number on their return, enabling them to be tracked and told to self-isolate in the event of an outbreak at their holiday destination. The Foreign Office is also set to relax its advice against all non- essential overseas travel.

The government said that the list of quarantine-free countries would be kept under constant review, with a “strict handbrake mechanism” being put in place to re-impose immediate restrictions on areas reporting a surge in Covid-19 cases.

The plans, which cover people travelling by air, ferry and through the Channel Tunnel, have been drawn up by the Joint Biosecurity Centre — set up to co-ordinate the response to the pandemic — in consultation with Public Health England.

The easing of the travel restrictions was welcomed by the travel industry, which has been badly damaged by the coronavirus lockdown. Flights to and from Britain have been cut by more than 90 per cent since late March.

There was frustration, though, that the government had yet to finalise deals on travel corridors. The final announcement is due on Wednesday, with the travel corridors expected to be in place from July 6. Paul Charles, travel consultant and spokesman for the Quash Quarantine group set up to challenge the restrictions, said: “Summer is already here and the window for booking is getting shorter and shorter. The announcement is to be welcomed but we still need urgent visibility of the countries that are to be included in the traffic-light system.”

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The government imposed a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals into the UK on June 8, including Britons returning from abroad. Each country has been given a risk assessment based on criteria including the prevalence of coronavirus, the government’s “confidence in the reliability of their data” and the trajectory of the disease. Quarantine-free travel will be permitted between the UK and countries deemed as “green” and “amber”, with self-isolation mandated for arrivals from “red” countries.

Green countries will include Croatia, Germany, Austria and — eventually — Australia and New Zealand. Amber countries, where more caution is advised, will include France, Greece, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Denmark.

A government spokesman said: “This system will enable us to take swift action to re-introduce self-isolation measures if new outbreaks occur overseas.”

British Airways said the measures did not go far enough. International Airlines Group, BA’s parent company, which is challenging quarantine in the courts, said: “The blanket ban on all countries is irrational when people are flying home from countries with lower infection rates than the UK.” It said the effect on aviation jobs was devastating.

Patricia Yates, director of strategy and communications at VisitBritain, said the industry had suffered a loss of around £37 billion during lockdown.

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Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she said: “We’ve seen a real nervousness about travelling, even domestically, through the summer.”

She said VisitBritain was running “a reassurance campaign” to persuade people “that they can travel, that it’s socially responsible to travel and that they can look out for the mark and know that businesses know what they’re doing.”

Ms Yates added that holidays would “look very different” — with no buffet breakfasts and hotels operating at reduced occupancy.

She said: “I love hotel buffet breakfasts - they are a thing of the past. And hotels will have to have social distancing, so they won’t be opening at full occupancy.

“Businesses will have to look at the sort of services they provide and really pruning those down to make sure that the infection control, that the cleansing regime is right and that they can have social distancing. So I think, be prepared for some things not to look quite as you normally expect them.”