Travellers, airlines and holiday companies are all anxiously waiting for news on the next round of international travel updates.
The next set of travel updates are expected to be announced later today.
Therefore, it leads us to our next course of action. Predicting what the next set of rules will entail.
How will the next set of travel updates affect the holiday destinations?
Spain, Greece and Portugal are likely to remain on the amber list as their low Covid case numbers continue to fall (this does offer the potential for them to go on the green list).
Seamus McCauley at Holiday Extras says: “The main holiday destinations – Spain, Greece, Portugal etc – are stable, the Canaries are seeing significant improvements with Gran Canaria dropping down one alert level and the Azores and Lanzarote have very low Covid levels (so if you want our tip for some safe, reliable last-minute sun, try Lanzarote or the Azores!).
There’s a band of countries in eastern Europe, from Poland down through Slovakia, Czech, Hungary and Romania with very low Covid levels, which should all go green where they’re not already, and further afield much of Africa and South America should come off the red list if the government simply follows the numbers on Thursday, including tourist favourites Egypt and South Africa.”
Will the “traffic lights” disappear?
All the indications are that, instead of the usual traffic light reshuffle of destinations on the green, amber and red lists, a more wide-ranging announcement will be made by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps.
Briefings indicate that the current complicated system of five separate traffic light categories (including the green watchlist and “super green” rules for Ireland) is likely to be reduced to just three. Briefings indicate that the current complicated system of five separate traffic light categories (including the green watchlist and “super green” rules for Ireland) is likely to be reduced to just three.
At one end of the spectrum, Ireland is expected to retain its special “super green” status, with no restrictions on travel to the UK. At the other extreme, a red list of high-risk locations will continue.
In between, all the other countries will be treated the same. The new category, for which the name “gramber” has been suggested, would cover almost everywhere in Europe, including our most popular destinations: Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Greece.
In practice that will make no difference at all for vaccinated travellers – from their perspective, the rules for the current amber list, green list and green watchlists are identical.
When will the latest travel updates take effect?
It is customary for the announcement to give at least four- or five-days’ notice before the changes come into effect. But given the scale of the changes, it may be that the chosen date is as late as the weekend of Friday 1 to Monday 4 October.
Any other possible changes?
According to several reports, the cost for quarantine hotels – currently costing a solo traveller coming from a red list nation £2,285 – could be replaced by self-isolation at home. This would ease the burden on travellers who are visiting red list countries for essential reasons.
What are your predictions for the upcoming travel updates? And is there something you would like to see added? Let us know in the comments!
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