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Beach in Tenerife British Holidaymakers Can Still Visit Tenerife Despite New COVID Measures Spain News

British holidaymakers will be able to continue to holiday on the island of Tenerife despite the regional government announcing a series of new COVID related restrictions.

Ángel Víctor Torres, President of the Canary Islands announced the new measures designed to suppress a recent rise in Coronavirus cases with the new restrictions set to take effect from midnight on Friday, December 18.

The new restrictions will include a curfew from between 10 pm to 6 am, which will replace the current curfew which starts at 11 pm.

Furthermore, there will also be restrictions in place to limit travel between the islands' different municipalities with a limit on Christmas gatherings to six people from a maximum of two households.

With thousands of British tourists set to visit the Canary Islands including Lanzarote and Fuerteventura over Christmas and the New Year periods, there was concern that they would be prevented access putting their holidays in jeopardy.

Despite the announcement, it was revealed that foreign tourists including those from the UK, would still be allowed to travel to the islands, as long as they can provide proof of negative COVID-19 test on their arrival.

However, due to the Canary Islands being removed from the UK’s list of safe travel corridors last week, anyone travelling to the islands including Tenerife will still need to self-isolate for 10 days on their return.

The 10 days can be reduced to just five days under the UK’s new test and release scheme which requires a private PCR test which can cost up to £120. Tests have to be taken no earlier than five days on return to the UK. 

The UK Foreign Office has said that non-essential travel is still permitted to the Canary Islands and as a result, tour operators will continue to operate flights and holidays there.

A number of travel firms are offering holidaymakers the chance of changing their bookings so they can rebook to a later date or offering travel credit vouchers for an alternative break.

A Jet2 spokesperson said: "We are aware of news reports regarding Tenerife closing its borders to holidaymakers. We can assure customers that we have received confirmation from the Canaries government that this is not the case”.

Jet2 said that as holidaymakers were still welcome on the islands, it would continue to operate its services there.

Meanwhile, a statement from TUI said: "We’re aware of the news reports regarding the recent announcement that Tenerife will close its borders from Friday 18th of December. We are currently working through what this means for our holiday programme and will update customers as soon as we have more information."

A Thomas Cook spokesperson said: "Our understanding is Tenerife is still open for tourists who have a negative result and so we will continue to operate our holidays as normal. If customers have any concerns then give us a call and we can chat through your options."

Source
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/tenerife-canary-islands-close-holiday-christmas-b1775412.html
https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/europe/brits-can-go-tenerife-holidays-23181238

Image Credit: mikezwei from Pixabay