Holidays to Spain Back on as UK Travellers Allowed

From Monday, holidays to Spain are back open as the country are officially lifting restrictions for UK travellers.

The UK and Japan are added to a list of countries whose residents are exempt from restrictions on non-essential travel to the EU. This means non vaccinated Brits will have restriction free entry to Spain. People will not even need a negative PCR Covid test to enter.

The European Union are currently working on creating a “white list” of countries whose citizens can freely enter the EU. At the moment there are only seven countries on the list. These are the ones who have low enough Covid infection rates to not pose too much of a risk.

The EU set the requirement for allowing visitors from countries with a rate below 75 cases per 100,000 people. Under those terms, UK travellers are eligible, but there are increasing concerns over the Indian Covid-19 variant.

Despite the EU agreeing this week to allow vaccinated non EU visitors to travel to the bloc this summer, it won’t decide for another 10 days whether that will include the UK or not.

Spain’s decision to allow UK travellers at this stage is thought to be because the country relies heavily on British tourism. They need the boost to help rebuild their own economy.

Spain is an “amber” country

Spain allowing UK travellers comes as great news to holidaymakers desperate to get away. However, the UK government still strongly advise against non-essential travel to Spain and many other EU countries.

As a country on the “amber list”, British tourists going to Spain will still have to isolate when they return. Along with other popular European holiday destinations, such as France, Greece and Italy, the country hope to join the “green list” at the next review. Although this announcement is not expected now until 28 June.

There are not many countries currently on the UK’s “green list” for travel, with Portugal the main destination. These are the countries that people are able to visit without needing to quarantine at all. The criteria for deciding the classification of countries is based on their risk.

The government’s message on travel is confusing and unclear. They are appealling to people not to go to countries on the “amber list” for leisure and holidays. They say travel to these locations should be for business or special circumstances only. But many Brits are still going away, as it is not actually legally prohibited.

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