Canada is among a number of countries that have been included to the UK’s green list for arrivals.
Denmark, Finland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Switzerland, and the Azores are also included, with the changes taking effect from 4:00 a.m. on Monday.
Travel from these countries, according to the government, poses a “low” risk to public health.
Travelers from these countries will not be required to quarantine, regardless of whether they are fully vaccinated, but they will be required to complete pre-departure and day two tests as well as a passenger location form.
Thailand and Montenegro, on the other hand, will be moved to the red list. This reflects the higher risk of infection in these nations, as well as the increased risk of travel to the UK.
According to the government, the high rates, along with lower levels of reported genomic surveillance in Thailand and Montenegro, make it difficult to detect an outbreak of a new variant of Covid-19 before it is imported and planted across the UK.
Passengers entering the UK from these red-listed countries will be required to stay in a managed quarantine facility for ten days and complete the relevant testing.
“The latest travel update provides some stability to international travel as well as reassurance for holidaymakers heading off to popular holiday destinations over the coming weeks,” said Mark Tanzer, chief executive of ABTA, in response to the news.
“The government now needs to focus its attention on sorting out some of the structural issues that are stopping people travelling and delaying the recovery. The UK may be leading the way on the vaccine rollout, but it is lagging behind other countries when it comes to opening up international travel and making it easy for people to travel.”
Mark added: “The government can and should do more to capitalise on the successful vaccine roll out in the UK – our neighbours across the channel have been able to travel without restriction for quite some time if they have been double vaccinated. The expensive testing regime is putting people off taking a holiday overseas and is unnecessarily onerous when people are returning from low-risk countries.”
The chief executive of Manchester Airports Group, Charlie Cornish, was a little more enthused.
“This announcement will have a positive impact on the options available to those looking to go on holiday in the remaining days of the summer season. But in reality, these changes will make little difference to the overall recovery of the UK travel industry, which is already recovering at less than half the pace of the rest of Europe,” Cornish commented.
He added, “Europe’s stronger recovery has been driven by the removal of testing requirements on vaccinated travellers.
“Unless the UK also removes the need for people with full immunity to take these tests, we will continue to squander the advantage our world-leading vaccination programme was supposed to deliver, while passengers on the continent travel restriction-free to low-risk destinations.
“Government cannot wait until the October 1st to make changes to the travel regime and must press ahead with an overhaul of its traffic light system immediately. We must arrive at a simpler, more affordable and sustainable travel framework to enable the best possible winter season and give customers the confidence to book ahead for 2022.”
– India’s new age travel digital media
