Mallorca is amber – for now
Saturday, May 8th, 2021
On the 17th of May, the legal ban on all non-essential travel from the UK will be lifted and foreign travel will once more be allowed under the new rules of a traffic light system.
People returning to the UK from “green” countries will need to undergo PCR testing but will not be required to quarantine after their stay abroad. Unfortunately, only a handful of countries have made it on the green list so far.
Spain, including Mallorca, is on the amber list. Travel to countries on the amber list is permitted but requires PCR-testing and a 10-day quarantine at home on return to the UK. Alternatively, an additional PCR-test can be taken five days after returning to the UK to allow an earlier end to the quarantine period. These requirements will make a lot of people reluctant to visit “amber” destinations.
This is not the news Mallorca had been hoping for, where Covid cases amongst the population have remained consistently low for some time and where stringent measures are in place to ensure the safety of locals and tourists alike.
The decision will be disappointing to many. Tour operators and airlines have been gearing up to provide Mallorca holidays and flights to British tourists. Hotels and businesses in Mallorca have spent some time preparing and hoping for an increase in British tourism. And, of course, there are many in the UK, who have been impatiently waiting to be able to visit their favourite island again.
However, all is not lost. The traffic light allocation for individual countries is reviewed on a 3-weekly basis. The decision whether or not to give the “green light” to a country or region takes into consideration the number of Covid infections in the local population as well as the number of people vaccinated. Based on these factors, Mallorca stands a good chance of being included on the green list in the near future.
For more information on this topic, please also see out article “Mallorca remains on Britain’s amber list in June“.
