The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Changing traffic lights could cause a car crash
The speed and frequency at which government advice is changing is a worry as holiday peak season approaches
For anyone who has booked or is hoping to book a summer break, the latest news on changes to the travel traffic light system must feel like another stomachturning loop in the holiday roller coaster. But in practice, the immediate effect of the changes will be limited.
As long as the Foreign Office doesn’t change its position and advise against all but essential travel – and it hasn’t yet done this – then package holidays to the Balearics, which have moved from green to amber status, can be expected to continue as planned, as will those to Croatia and Bulgaria that have been promoted from amber to green. Among the other tweaks, the only ones of any significance are the addition of Cuba and Indonesia to the red list.
Holidaymakers who have been double jabbed (and who had their second vaccination at least two weeks before departure) will still be able to travel to the Balearics and, as long as they pass their pre-departure test and take another one two days after arrival, they will be able to avoid having to self-isolate.
However, those who do not meet the vaccination criteria – mostly people in their 20s and early 30s – may be tripped up by the sudden change in the status of the Balearics. Both Mallorca and Ibiza are popular party destinations and significant numbers of young people who had booked there will now be forced to plan for 10 days of self-isolation on their return, or to postpone their trips.
What is of concern to all of us, however, as we enter peak season, is the speed and frequency with which the traffic lights are changing for major holiday destinations. Since travel restarted on May 17, we have seen Portugal go green then switch back to amber within a couple of weeks. The same has now happened to the Balearics. They were only given the green light two weeks ago.
Last week’s announcement that those who are double vaccinated can return from amber destinations without selfisolating helps mitigate the situation. But it is quite clear that the speed at which the pandemic is developing in the UK – and almost certainly now in mainland Europe – risks making life more and more difficult for travellers.
The situation is made harder to predict and manage because key countries are out of sync. Infection rates are soaring here in the UK and rising in the Balearics (those in Mallorca, for example, have increased 10-fold in the past month), they are also starting to go up in Greece.
This week, President Macron warned the French that they were at the start of another coronavirus wave. By contrast, in Italy and Croatia the situation is – for the time being – more under control. It seems inconceivable, though, that the latest wave can be stopped and that it won’t quickly affect both those countries. The delta variant is now far too widespread and infectious to be held back for long.
So, two big risks for travellers this summer are becoming more and more obvious. First, more destinations may get spooked by their rising rates, see what is happening in the UK and slap a ban on British holidaymakers. Austria has already done this, Italy imposes five days’ quarantine on us and France effectively bars unvaccinated holidaymakers. Second, our own government may decide that rates are so high in some key destinations that it switches their rating from amber to red.
It seems inconceivable that it would slap a red rating on a major destination without giving enough time for all leisure travellers to get home. Surely it would be political suicide to force holidaymakers to pay for the 10 days of hotel quarantine required for arrivals from the red zone. But we will certainly be living on our nerves for the rest of the summer.
So, if you have a holiday booked, hold tight and keep your fingers crossed. If you want to book one, do so only at the last minute.
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