The Telegraph
Only eight countries will compile a green list for safe travel from 17 May
According to the industry model, the US, Gibraltar, Israel and Iceland will be among the eight countries on the ‘green’ list for safe travel from 17 May. The analysis, based on the government’s four ‘risk criteria’ for travel, indicates that Ireland, Malta and Australia and New Zealand, the only other countries, are currently closed to foreign arrivals. The investigation by Robert Boyle, former chief strategy officer at BA and its owner IAG, confirms the government’s indications that only a handful of “green” countries are likely to be approved for quarantine holidays when ministers plan to ban non-essentials on te hef. foreign travel on 17 May. It is significant that almost the whole of Europe is on the orange list, which requires a ten-day house quarantine, or even a red list, where oncoming hotel quarantines should cost at £ 1,750 per person. Countries that must be red according to the criteria are France, Turkey, Holland, Croatia, Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg – but they will probably not be classified as such for political and economic reasons. The research puts the major tourism markets in Spain, Greece, Italy and Cyprus on orange due to their high Covid rates, but it says they could still go green on the government’s review date of 28 June. “Last year a lower risk rating was given than the mainland, and this could happen again this year,” reads the report circulating in the industry.