Holidays To Europe Likely To Restart ‘Within Weeks’ As Spain And Greece ‘On Green List’

Holidays To Europe Likely To Restart ‘Within Weeks’ As Spain And Greece ‘On Green List’.

It is now thought highly likely that UK tourists will be allowed to travel to France, Greece, and Spain before the end of June in a ‘big bang for summer holidays’. This comes as Spain’s state of alarm is due to end on May 9. The UK Government is set to release its ‘green list’ of countries before next week, which citizens will be allowed to travel to from May 17 without having to isolate on their return.

Although the complete list is still being finalised, reports suggest around 10 or 12 countries could be on the list. The Times and The Guardian said the destinations could include Portugal, Malta, and Gibraltar, with The Telegraph claiming Spain, Greece, and France could be added by the end of June.

It also depends on whether the European Commission agrees to ease restrictions on travel, which is looking more likely as its vaccination rollout progresses and coronavirus infection rates across the bloc start to fall.

Yesterday, May 3, Boris Johnson said he expected there to be ‘some openings up’ on May 17, although he did warn that the UK will need to be ‘cautious and sensible’. Asked if people should be planning foreign holidays, the prime minister said: ‘We will be saying more as soon as we can. ‘I think that there will be some openings up on the 17th, but we have got to be cautious and we have got to be sensible and we have got to make sure that we don’t see the virus coming back in.’

One Downing Street source told The Times holidaymakers need to be patient before the ‘big bang for summer holidays’ in the next few weeks. ‘June will look a lot more like normal, many of the traditional holiday destinations will be on the list by then,’ they said. This suggests holiday islands in Spain, Greece, and possibly Portugal will also be on the ‘amber’ quarantine list at first, even though they have lower infection rates than their mainland countries.

Source: The Times