Healthplan Spain

HEALTHPLAN MAGAZINE

Beach, Tenerife, Spain Spain Could Be Placed On UK's New Travel ‘Watchlist’ In Blow To Holidaymakers Spain News

Spain could be placed on a new ‘amber watchlist’, which will cause havoc for up to a million UK tourists who are currently holidaying here.

The UK government is, this week, expected to announce changes to the present Covid travel system and according to experts in the holiday industry, this could be a disastrous move.

Travel expert Paul Charles, who is the chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, condemned the plans, telling ITV's Good Morning Britain that "It would be a disaster to bring in an amber watchlist on top of the amber list, the green list and the red list."

Tory backbenchers and Labour MP’s have also hit out at the move that will see ‘amber list’ countries moved to the ‘red list’ with very little warning.

Currently, anyone returning from a red list country has to quarantine in a hotel for ten days, at the huge cost of £1,750 per traveller.

Spain is expected to be one of the countries being lined up for the new list, which will leave up to one million British tourists who are currently on holiday over there in turmoil.

There are also concerns that Italy and Greece could also follow Spain onto the new ‘amber watchlist’.

The expected ‘amber watchlist’, comes just a short time after it was announced that anyone arriving from a country on the current amber list’ that had been vaccinated in either the EU or the USA, were no longer required to self-isolate for 10 days from Monday.

Those vaccinated in the UK were already allowed to avoid self-isolation from the amber group of countries.

The imminent announcement has caused upheaval within the UK government, with the Conservative Chairman of the Commons Transport Committee, Huw Merriman, stating that an amber watchlist is a “giant flag and will cause booking cancellations and complications.

It is also believed that Chancellor Rishi Sunak, has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, warning him that the UK’s current travel restrictions are “out of step” compared to other countries from around the world.

Matt Warman, however, who is the minister for digital infrastructure, told Sky News that the travel watchlist provided people with information, so they could make “informed decisions” themselves.

He said, "People do have to make common sense judgements and that may involve taking into consideration the fact that a country's rates may indeed be getting worse.

"The most important thing that the government can do is make sure that people have as much information as they possibly can; that they have information about which direction a foreign country might be going in so that they don't inadvertently find themselves having to quarantine when they get back."

Also speaking to Sky News, Labour's Anneliese Dodds said that the UK was "in a chaotic situation" and cried out for the government to release data for countries that are being moved around the travel list.

"It looks like yet again the government is in disarray even over that, some are for it and some are against it," she said.

"Why can't we provide holidaymakers with the data?

"I don't understand why the Conservative government are so reluctant to do that."

A group of UK airline bosses, including those from British Airways, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic have written to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps asking for the government to reduce the "still onerous and increasingly disproportionate burden of testing on travellers" and to move more countries onto the green list, removing the need to quarantine.

John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow chief executive told Sky News "I think we need to keep it simple and build confidence that vaccination works.

"I'd like to see France coming back on the amber list and an extension of the green list."

Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade said that placing France on the "amber-plus" list was a "total disaster" after ministers revealed the move was prompted by the sudden increase in the Beta variant cases on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

Everyone arriving from France, including those who are fully vaccinated, must self-isolate for 10 days.

Travel industry bosses said that because of the UK government's change to the lists, thousands of jobs were now at risk within the travel and aviation sectors.

According to the Times Radio, senior industry figures said that they believed the government was "tying itself in knots with these inexplicably complicated rules".

Source

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-row-builds-over-potential-amber-travel-watchlist-with-spain-among-countries-t-could-be-affected-12370547

Image Credit: joyanca from Pixabay