THE GREEN LIGHT FOR SUNSHINE HOLIDAYS
Scots set to get all-clear for quarantine-free travel to summer hotspots later this month
FOREIGN holidays from Scotland will be given the green light later this month in a massive boost to families desperate for some summer sun.
as revealed by the Mail last week, the country will adopt a traffic light system in line with the rest of the UK on May 24.
It will mean holidaymakers can jet off to ‘green list’ countries without having to quarantine on their return. The news will come as a welcome boost to the travel sector, which has faced economic meltdown and massive job losses during the pandemic.
airport bosses told the Mail last week they had held crisis talks with scottish ministers over the move and were confident of an imminent lifting of some restrictions.
The First Minister is expected to unveil the plan for international
travel today, which will be similar to the one announced by Boris Johnson in England.
Countries would be classified as green, amber and red and a review would take place every four weeks.
This could see summer holidays go ahead to destinations such as Portugal, Iceland, Israel and Gibraltar.
The Scottish Government said it would not comment on reports ahead of today’s Covid briefing.
But speaking to the BBC, national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch confirmed that Nicola Sturgeon would be making
‘Changed the equation’
a statement regarding international travel.
Current guidelines say people ‘must not travel into or out of Scotland from outside the UK without an essential reason’.
They add: ‘Even where travel is allowed, you should still avoid travelling abroad if possible.’
People coming to Scotland are currently likely to need to isolate in a hotel or at home for at least ten days after arrival and, by law, must have proof of a negative test before travelling.
Under the traffic light system in England, people returning from a green destination – Portugal, Gibraltar and Israel among others – will not be required to self-isolate and will only have to take one post-arrival coronavirus test.
Holidaymakers who go against the guidance and travel to an amber destination – such as Spain, Italy and France – must self-isolate at home for ten days and take two post-arrival tests. Turkey, the Maldives and Nepal were added to the red list of travel destinations on Saturday.
That means anyone returning from those countries to England after 4am tomorrow will have to stay in a quarantine hotel for 11 nights at a cost of £1,750 each.
The traffic light system will be reviewed every three weeks, with four key tests the Government will take into account.
These include the percentage of a country’s population that has been vaccinated, the rate of infection, the prevalence of variants of concern and the country’s access to reliable scientific data and gene sequencing.
In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland last night, Professor Leitch said the final decision on changes to the international travel rules had not been made yet.
He added: ‘The UK Government has announced what those green, red, amber countries are, around what will be allowed, and the First Minister and her Cabinet will be making that decision tonight and tomorrow and she will announce it tomorrow lunch time.’
Professor Leitch said the ‘vaccination programme has changed the equation a little’ on overseas travel compared to last year.
However, he warned that there are concerns about ‘variants in particular’.
On the easing of restrictions Linda Hill, of LAH Travel in Ayrshire, said: ‘It is light at the end of the tunnel and, as an industry, we welcome this.
‘I think consumer confidence is still very low and I don’t see a surge in bookings as it’s still quite a difficult process to go on holiday in terms of tests before you go and when you come back.
‘I absolutely want a fournations approach.
‘I think it is the most sensible thing to do when it comes to international travel.’