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From next week, England will allow vaccinated tourists from the European Union and the United States to arrive without isolation, which is a huge and long-awaited impetus for airlines and travel companies.
“We are helping people living in the United States and European countries reunite with their family and friends,” Secretary of Transportation Grant Shaps wrote on Twitter. This policy will take effect at 4:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) on August 2nd.
The British tourism industry criticized the government for its slow pace of opening up, saying it wasted its leading position in the promotion of global vaccines and allowed the European Union to take the lead in attracting tourists.
Travelers with vaccines approved by the United States and the European Union do not need to be quarantined. Removal of the same requirement for fully vaccinated Britons returning from intermediate-risk countries in July will help initiate a travel recovery.
The new rules apply to England, but it is widely expected that other parts of the UK will soon follow suit. The government said that international cruise voyages may also restart from England.
Airlines such as British Airways and the UK’s largest Heathrow Airport have been dragged down by the pandemic’s cumulative losses of US$4 billion. They welcomed the move, but said that if the industry is to recover from the collapse in demand, more is needed.
The most important is the reopening of the Anglo-American Travel Corridor, which is still affected by the ban on all non-US citizens who have been in the UK.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told LBC Radio earlier on Wednesday that he wants American citizens to come to the UK “freely” and is discussing changes.
Travelers must also undergo expensive COVID-19 tests before departure and shortly after arriving in England.
BA CEO Sean Doyle (Sean Doyle) said that the company’s test proved that it can quickly and safely check the vaccination status of travelers.
He said in a statement: “This step will allow us to reunite our loved ones and re-open the UK around the world, thereby providing a much-needed and important impetus to the economy.”
This move is accompanied by the first increase in COVID cases in the UK in 7 days, as the UK finds itself in another wave of coronaviruses due to the fact that the Delta variant spreads faster than the previous common variant.
According to British media reports, the UK reported 27,734 confirmed cases on Wednesday, ending the 7-day continuous decline in cases.
Quarantine rules for travelers from France
Changes to the quarantine rules in the United States and the European Union will ease access to some of the UK’s largest tourist markets. After 16 months of severe financial pressure from pandemic-related restrictions, it will also help the company revitalize its business.
British Airways shares rose 3%, easyJet rose 4%, and Wizz Air rose 7%.
The airline made almost all of its profits during the summer, and EasyJet said this month that it was directing more flights to Europe, where demand is greater.
“This is the right thing and should be done, but like I said it’s a bit too late,” easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren told LBC.
The British government has said that due to the Beta variant, it maintains quarantine regulations for travelers from France, but French officials said that most of the cases came from the overseas island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
Britain will review the status of travelers from France next weekend. Since the decision to retain these restrictions at the last minute on July 19, French officials have been complaining about British travel restrictions on France.
A politician in President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party called Wednesday’s decision “ridiculous.”
“Isolate fully vaccinated people in Lille but not Brussels; Paris but not Miami; Annecy but not Geneva; Montpellier but not Barcelona,” wrote Alexander Holroyd, whose voters included French people living in the UK.
“The vaccine works: regain freedom for those protected by #covid,” he wrote on Twitter, adding the hashtag #sciencenotpolitics.
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