Green for Go

The UK Government has made a number of changes to the traffic light travel list, including the removal of quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated arrivals from France.  Qatar and the UAE have moved to ‘amber’. At very short notice Mexico is ‘red’.

The European countries of Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway have been moved from ‘amber’ to ‘green’, meaning all travellers (regardless of vaccination status) need only take a day 2 test after arrival into England. However, the popular holiday destinations of Greece and Spain remain on the ‘amber’ list for now.

India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE are moving from ‘red’ to ‘amber’, meaning that arrivals will no longer need to quarantine for ten days in a government-approved hotel, but Georgia, Mexico, La Réunion and Mayotte are moving in the other direction from ‘amber’ to the most strict ‘red’ list.

Note that the cost of hotel quarantine for ‘red’ list arrivals is also changing, with the price for single travellers increasing from £1,750 to £2,285 from 12 August – a second adult staying in the same room will be charged £1,430.

Meanwhile Clive Wratten, CEO of the Business Travel Association, commented: “We welcome today’s announcement on travel regulations. The introduction of more countries to the ‘green’ and ‘amber’ lists is a leap forward in the return of safe international travel.

“The Government has taken the right and strong decisions in abandoning plans for watchlists and removing France’s unique Amber Plus status. These were potentially calamitous moves which would have jeopardised the future of the whole travel and aviation supply chains.

“The opening of routes into the Middle East is of particular significance for business travel. It will take some time for business travel to return at scale, but this enables our sector to contribute to UK GDP [Gross Domestic Product] and the international trading reputation of our country once more.

“We urge the Government to continue to help the travel sector to get back on its feet and to work to create international protocols that boost travellers’ confidence.”

www.thebta.org.uk

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OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum

Simon Grigor, United Kingdom

It's one thing Norway having moved to the UK 'green' list, however, the UK remains on Norway's 'dark red' list and hotel quarantining is mandatory for such travellers, even having had a negative PCR test. May be the case with other 'movers to green' too.

Englishman , Leeds

Utterly confused. We may even go to Scotland assuming the lady lets us in, or Wales where we will certainly get a welcome.

,

From utterly confused of Leeds. We may even go to Scotland assuming the lady lets us in, or Wales where we will certainly get a welcome.