Holidays to Portugal are back on after the Iberian nation was added to the Government’s “green list” on Thursday, but Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago were struck from quarantine-free travel.
Ministers made the decision to act after coronavirus rates in Britons’ third most popular holiday destination fell to 14.4 cases per 100,000 people, well below the benchmark used to assess risk.
The changes will come into force on Saturday at 4am, setting a 34-hour deadline for thousands of Britons to return home before the mandatory 14-day quarantine comes into force.
However, travel industry insiders warned that the decision to remove Portugal may have come “too late” in the summer for its tourism industry to gain any significant benefit.
The Government acted to remove the three new destinations after data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England indicated a “significant change” in the number and speed confirmed coronavirus cases in all countries.
On Thursday Croatia had 27.4 cases per 100,000 of the population, well over the 20 figure used by the Government to assess risk and a 164 per cent increase on last week.
It is understood that officials at the Joint Biosecurity Centre had highlighted specific coronavirus cases imported to the UK from Croatia.
Approximately 875,000 British nationals visited Croatia in 2019 and around 20,000 are thought to be on holiday in the Balkan nation. Austria was removed after hitting a weekly average case rate of 20.3, while Trinidad and Tobago rose to 25.8.
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has updated its travel advice to advise against all but essential travel to Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago and Austria, while Portugal is now exempt. Switzerland and Greece are understood to remain under a close watch by the officials amid concern over rising Covid infections.
It comes as the World Health Organisation warned that the Balkan countries such as Croatia had “been very much a sub-regional hotspot over the summer period”.
Dr Catherine Smallwood said Thursday: “We really need communities to take this on board, take the adequate steps both at a country level, in terms of the basic contact tracing, case identification and isolation and testing the systems that need to be in place.
“And then where there are hotspots and increased transmission, additional targeted measures need to be brought in place very quickly to nip transmission in the bud, stop it from spreading and keep the level of transmission at controllable levels.”
The decision to add Portugal to the Government’s “green list” will be welcome news to its tourism industry, which has suffered from a lack of British tourists.
Only 32.6 per cent of the Algarve’s hotel rooms were booked last month, the worst rate ever for the month of July, according to data from regional hotel association AHETA.
Noel Josephides, the director of the umbrella travel association AITO, said: “The news is welcome and will hopefully give Portugal’s industry a bit of reprieve for September.
“Sadly it has already lost most of its summer season and this announcement may well be too late.”
Luis Araújo, the president of the Portuguese National Tourism Authority, said: “While this has been a period which nobody will ever forget, a period of time which has left behind a trail of destruction, sorrow, and pain – we are so thankful to be able to open our arms, even wider than before, to the people of the United Kingdom.”
The change will come as a huge relief to the thousands of Portuguese living in the UK, as well as British expats. Henrique Rocha, 28, and Carolina Pereira, 25, have been living in Manchester for about a year and a half and now expect to visit Portugal in the coming months.
They had flights home booked for April cancelled because of the pandemic but would have flown home for at least a short visit if not for the quarantine requirements.
“I was lucky and I didn’t lose my job but I was put on furlough,” administrative assistant Ms Pereira said. “I just wanted to go and visit my family.”
Mr Rocha, a pipe welder, needed treatment for a medical condition he felt could be better managed in Portugal but ended up having to make do with a phone consultation. Friends and family also had to cancel visits to Manchester and the couple eventually met up with family in France because it was the only viable option.
Meanwhile, the removal of three new nations from quarantine free travel has sparked renewed calls for the introduction of airport testing.
Paul Charles of travel consultancy The PC Agency said: “The creeping reintroduction of blanket quarantine underlines the lack of investment on testing.
“If we had the world-class testing system we were promised we could reassuringly travel anywhere. It would transform livelihoods, protect jobs and enable our economy to thrive again.”
Mr Josephides added that a testing regime should have been considered “months ago” as an alternative to blanket quarantine.
Tobias Ellwood, the Chair of the Defence Select Committee, said that airport testing should be expedited so that “quarantine can be reduced or removed completely”.
This week The Telegraph revealed that testing travellers for coronavirus will be considered by Cabinet ministers next week, amid mounting pressure to act from the airline industry.
Options including testing passengers between five and 10 days after their arrival to enable them to shorten their 14-day self-isolation if the results are negative.
Luis Araújo, the president of the Portuguese National Tourism Authority, said: “While this has been a period which nobody will ever forget, a period of time which has left behind a trail of destruction, sorrow, and pain – we are so thankful to be able to open our arms, even wider than before, to the people of the United Kingdom.”