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In an update to Jersey’s travel restrictions this morning, the whole of England is now classified as ‘red’. Under the new rules, all non-vaccinated visitors from England must quarantine on arrival for at least ten days, until the negative results of three Covid tests (taken on days 0, 5 and 10) are returned.
Fully vaccinated travellers from England must take two tests, on arrival and day 8, and isolate until the result from the first test is returned.
Scotland is already on the island’s red list, while Wales and Northern Ireland are classified as green.
The tighter rules have been introduced “due to rising Covid-19 case rates” in England, the Jersey government said. It pointed to “evidence of very high risk through infection rates or variants of concern”.
Scroll down for more of today’s travel headlines
Saga sees spike in bookings for double-vaccinated Britons
Saga Holidays, which specialises in holidays for people over 50, has reported a surge in hits on its web pages with searches for holidays to Spain up 205%, while breaks to Portugal have seen a 421% increase.
Madeira has seen an uplift of 344% and the Balearics’ searches are up by 365%. Top sellers are Madeira, Spain and Sicily.
Chris Simmonds, CEO of Saga Holidays, said: “Our customers are so looking forward to going on holiday again. They were early in the queue for both vaccines and are looking for some warmth, a change of scenery and new experiences.
“Our customer research has found that our travellers want to go away for longer to make up for more than 15 months at home.”
US-UK travel ‘not going to happen soon’
A travel agreement between the US and UK is unlikely to happen until autumn, The Telegraph understands, as the Biden administration is in “no hurry” to lift the ban on non-US citizens from the UK.
It had been hoped that transatlantic travel would resume before July 4, but British Government sources have warned that any easing of restrictions is “not going to happen soon,” the Financial Times reports.
“We thought July was the earliest we might be able to get something in place, but now it’s looking more like September,” a source said.
Another added: “The Biden administration is in no hurry… and the chances of anything happening before August now seem to be zilch.”
An increase in Delta variant cases in the UK and uncertainty over the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in the US are thought to be the reasons behind the delay. The US is the UK’s largest and most valuable inbound visitor market, worth £4.2 billion to the economy in 2019.
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New Zealand to partially restart ‘travel bubble’ with Australia
The New Zealand government said it will resume quarantine-free travel with parts of Australia next week as it lifted Covid curbs in Wellington today.
New Zealand halted its “travel bubble” with Australia on Saturday as an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant took root in Sydney and several other Australian cities.
However, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said quarantine-free travel will resume with South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria states and the Australian Capital Territory from Monday, although authorities would continue to review the situation until then.
“The cabinet agreed that partially lifting the pause was the appropriate course of action,” Hipkins told a news conferene. said. “The health advice is that the spread of Covid-19 in these parts of Australia has been contained at this point,” he said.
Travellers will be required to provide a negative Covid test pre-departure and must not have visited the blocked states and territories in recent days, Hipkins said.
The pause in travel with Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland states and the Northern Territory will be reviewed on Tuesday, he added, to allow test results to be returned and a further assessment of the situation.
Bali postpones return of tourism
The Government of Indonesia will now wait until Covid cases fall significantly before opening Bali to foreign tourists, the country’s tourism minister has said.
“We were targeting end of July, beginning of August, but we just have to be mindful of where we are in this recent spike [in coronavirus cases],” Indonesia’s Minister for Tourism and the Cultural Economy, Sandiaga Uno, told Reuters.
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The pandemic has devastated the economy of Bali, for decades a magnet for holidaymakers thanks to its spectacular beaches, vibrant nightlife and distinctive Hindu culture.
Coronavirus infections have surged across Indonesia in recent weeks, to about 200 cases per day.
The minister said he wanted Bali’s daily infections to fall to 30 or 40 per day before reopening.
Monday’s headlines
It’s only Tuesday, but this has already been a big week for travel news:
- Balearic Islands tightens entry restrictions for Britons
- France and Germany to renew attempt to force UK tourists to quarantine in EU
- Malta to allow entry to only fully vaccinated Britons
- Spanish mainland to reinstate PCR test requirement
- Hong Kong bans passenger flights from UK
Now, on with today’s travel stories.