Europe’s favourite holiday nations consider opening up to UK tourists
Europe’s main tourist destinations are looking at opening up to UK flights as the country starts to emerge from its most recent lockdown.
Greece’s tourism minister said his country would prioritise vaccines for people living on 40 of its smaller holiday destination islands.
The Spanish government said it wanted to open up the Canary and Balearic islands from May for travellers with a negative result from a Covid-19 test.
And Rita Marques, Portugal’s Tourism Minister, said she hoped the UK could operate restriction-free travel.
As the southern European nations, which depend heavily on tourism, look at opening up their economies again, each country is linking flights to Covid tests and proof of vaccination.
Under the UK’s plan to leave lockdown, today is the first date for lifting restrictions. Schools will reopen and some outdoor exercise will be allowed. All other dates are conditional on meeting coronavirus conditions, and May 17 will be the earliest that people in England can travel abroad for a holiday.
Greece plans to vaccinate the inhabitants of its smaller islands, including Halki and Meganisi.
“We’re vaccinating everyone on islands that have a population of less than 1,000 inhabitants,” said Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis.
“We want to vaccinate people working in the tourism sector, from hotel staff and waiters to tourist guides and drivers.”
Greece has a population of 11 million and more than one million of them have received their first dose of vaccine since the country began its inoculation drive.
Direct commercial or private flights between Portugal and Britain have been banned since January to limit the spread of Covid-19 variants.
Those measures are to be reviewed on March 16.
Ms Marques said she hoped to allow British tourists who could prove they had tested negative or were immune to Covid-19 into the country from May 17.
Cyprus will open its doors from May 1 to British tourists who have been vaccinated against Covid-19, a government official said.
The pandemic has devastated the island’s tourism industry, with arrivals slumping to 631,609 last year from nearly four million in 2019.
“We informed the British government that as of May 1, we would facilitate the arrival of British citizens immunised with EU-licensed vaccines to enter Cyprus with no negative Covid-19 test and no quarantine,” deputy tourism minister Savvas Perdios said.
Mr Perdios said the policy was subject to the British government’s restrictions, which currently ban international travel.