Amber is no go, says UK minister Hancock

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matthew Hancock said on Monday that UK residents “should certainly not” travel to destinations in the Amber list of the country’s classification system for travel — that includes Cyprus.

Hancock told Times Radio that UK travelers should not go to these destinations unless absolutely necessary.

“People should not travel to amber or red list countries unless it’s absolutely necessary, and certainly not for holiday purposes.”

They will also be required to complete a passenger locator form and test negative for Covid before arriving back into the UK.

Cyprus is still a major destination for many tour companies and airlines — Jet2, for example, has a substantial offer of holidays in Cyprus available online. TUI has holidays starting in June available for booking to a number of Cyprus destinations.

Yet analysts warn that, with the Amber listing, Cyprus is not likely to see a flood of UK tourist arrivals.

“International arrivals from the UK to Cyprus dropped by 82.6 per cent in 2020 according to GlobalData,” writes Johanna Bonhill-Smith, associate research analyst at GlobalData in London. “And its current status on the UK’s traffic light system as ‘amber’ means that home quarantine and multiple PCR tests are needed and this will likely affect its appeal for UK tourists in the short-term.  Cost and accessibility are two main factors that influence the choice of the UK traveler. Both of these are impacted by the traffic light travel system and would-be travelers may seek out green list countries.”

Travel industry leaders have complained bitterly about the current ‘traffic-light’ listing.

Official advice on travel to amber list countries is “not clear”, the boss of British Airways has claimed.

Chief executive Sean Doyle said there are “many reasons why people need to travel”.

“The framework is there to deal with risk and I think if people comply with the framework, that’s ultimately achieving what it was designed to achieve.

“I think there are many reasons why people need to travel, and the advice is not clear in that regard,” he insisted.

UKinbound CEO Joss Croft commented: “Confirmation that non-essential international travel will reopen on 17th May is a positive step forward and will be celebrated across the sector, but our industry cannot afford another false dawn and a stop-start recovery. The sparsity of countries on the green list and notable absence of the US and much of Europe, along with the cost of testing and the continuation of quarantine measures, present further devastating barriers to business for the inbound tourism industry, which sustains over 500,000 jobs and would normally generate £28.4 billion annually for the UK economy.