Britons gamble on booking summer holidays before UK travel lists are announced

A beach in Portugal
PA Archive

Some Britons have already booked foreign getaways to Malta and other holiday destinations ahead of any changes to the UK’s traffic light list.

They have made a gamble on booking their sun-drenched breaks before the travel review announcement on Thursday which will reveal which countries are red, amber and green.

Ministers are under mounting pressure to lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to Mediterranean countries as experts reportedly advised the government that Mallorca, Ibiza, and Menorca are safe to visit.

Malta is said to also be a strong contender to be added to the quarantine-free “green list” which numbers just 11 countries and territories so far.

On Wednesday the country’s government announced that no new coronavirus cases were reported as the nation continued its trend of low case numbers.

Meanwhile, there is concern Israel, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, could be moved onto the amber list due to a surge in cases of the Delta variant, reported The Express.

But the streak of low cases in some countries has given holidaymakers hope and many have taken to social media - ahead of today’s announcement from the government’s Transport secretary - to reveal their plans for the summer.

Among the sea of comments, one Twitter user said: “It’s Russian roulette time again, I’ve now booked Malta for next week - there’s next to nothing cases and zero deaths. All I want is one week in the sun.”

Another person tweeted that he had “just booked Mallorca” and was “determined to have a holiday.”

While one user said: “just booked a summer holiday to mallorca get me my bikini collection lays crisps and five books i am LIVING for it.”

It comes as Analyst Tim White said he expected a handful of destinations to be moved to the green tier including the Balearic Islands, Poland, Slovakia and the Greek islands of Corfu, Kefalonia and Santorini.

But he cautioned the “huge rise in UK cases” of Covid-19 are likely to result in Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Home Secretary Priti Patel “again trimming a few off the green list”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in