Johnson ‘set to green-light holidays to 95 destinations’ – but only a dozen will let Britons enter

Boris Johnson ‘is set to green-light holidays to 95 destinations’ – but only a dozen will have air bridges in place to let Britons enter from Day One on Monday

  • Boris Johnson is set to announce Britons can travel to the majority of the EU
  • Other permitted destinations will include all British overseas territories and other long-haul destinations like Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Sri Lanka
  • However, only a handful of the 95 countries will allow entries from the UK 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to give citizens from the UK the green light to travel abroad to 95 countries, a move that signals the end of the government’s blanket quarantine policy on arrivals to the country.

Johnson is expected to announced that Britons will be free to travel to the majority European Union, all British overseas territories and a number of other long-haul destinations.

These are expected to include Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Despite the Prime Minister’s impending announcement, in reality hopeful holidaymakers will only be able to travel to a fraction of the destinations due to deals not being struck to create ‘air corridors’ with other nations.

Some countries have raised concerns over the prospect of people travelling from the UK following the coronavirus outbreak in Leicester, according to The Times, with Greece already extending its ban on UK tourists by a further two weeks. 

Quarantine restrictions on arrivals into the UK were imposed by the government on June 8 – which includes returning UK citizens – and put an end to the hope of holidays abroad.

Pictured: Passengers queue up to check in for flights at Stansted Airport London, Britain, 01 July 2020. The UK government is set to announce that Britons can travel to 95 countries, but only a handful actually permit people travelling from the UK

However, it was announced last week that measures would be relaxed for people returning from ‘safe’ countries from July 6.

The government has been working on a traffic light system based on coronavirus risks in other countries, and plans on permitting travel to both ‘green’ and ‘amber’ countries.

But Greece’s announcement that it was extending its ban on flights from the UK reportedly caught the UK government – who were set to release the list on Monday – by surprise.

Pictured: Tourists arrive at Nikos Kazatzakis International Airport in Crete, Greece, on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. The passengers - most of them from Germany - came from Hamburg on the first international flight to arrive in the island

Pictured: Tourists arrive at Nikos Kazatzakis International Airport in Crete, Greece, on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. The passengers – most of them from Germany – came from Hamburg on the first international flight to arrive in the island

The country opened to tourists for the first time since lockdown yesterday, but said visitors for the UK would have to wait until at least July 15.

According to The Times, other counties have since raised the alarm over the proposed air bridge agreements with the UK following the outbreak of Covid-19 cases in Leicester.

The government has been criticised by figures in the travel sector for not revealing the full details of its relaxation of the measures, saying that it is preventing people from booking holidays with confidence.