London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Covid-19: Cyprus and Portugal want to welcome vaccinated UK tourists from May

Covid-19: Cyprus and Portugal want to welcome vaccinated UK tourists from May

Cyprus and Portugal say they hope to welcome vaccinated British tourists from May - the month when travel restrictions may be lifted in the UK.

The Cypriot government said those who had two Covid jabs could travel, while Portugal said those who tested negative or were "immune" could also visit.

It is not known how vaccine status would be proved.

The earliest date those in England could go abroad for holidays is 17 May, following a review on travel rules.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has said it is still "too early" to book a foreign trip.

Under current rules, foreign travel from the UK is banned apart from for exceptional reasons.

From Monday, passengers travelling internationally from England will have to carry a form stating their trip is permitted, the Department for Transport has announced. It will be an offence to fail to produce a completed form. Those who do not have one could be fined £200.

But once travel is allowed again, the success of the UK's vaccination programme makes Britons especially attractive to countries wanting to attract holidaymakers, especially those European countries which are traditionally popular with British tourists.

'Everything will be ready'


Portugal is currently on the UK's red list, meaning travellers coming from there have to quarantine in the UK when they arrive.

Rita Marques, Portugal's secretary of state for tourism, told the BBC: "I do believe that Portugal will soon allow restriction-free travel, not only for vaccinated people, but those who are immune or who test negative. We hope to welcome British tourists from 17 May."

She added that the situation in Portugal was "stable" and said, "Everything will be ready by mid May."

The UK government says the red list remains under review, with public health the UK's top priority.

International travel from England will not start until 17 May at the earliest, with a global travel taskforce reporting in April. The UK government has not yet approved any kind of vaccination certificate but Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove is looking into possible measures.

The decision to lift restrictions on travel abroad still depends on vaccine rollout in the UK and abroad, the effectiveness of the vaccine, the prevalence of the virus and its variants.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have not set a date for the start of international travel.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she hopes a certification scheme could allow vaccinated holidaymakers to journey abroad - but warned Scotland was still "some way away" from such a programme. She said she could not advise people to "fly off to the sun" before there was a degree of certainty it could be done without risk.


Going on holiday is currently still illegal, but the prime minister's roadmap last week has left many optimistic that that will change soon.

Although international travel is not guaranteed to start on 17 May, countries and companies are already gearing up to have British tourists back and making a bid for them to book.

When travel does restart, it's likely to be in tiers, with some countries more open than others.

Be warned, just because a country may say it is happy to have us, doesn't mean that they will be on that list; those discussions are still ongoing and will ultimately rest on how the vaccine, virus and variants look in the next few months.

Cyprus's deputy tourism minister, Savvas Perdios, said the country would allow Britons who had been given vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to enter without the need for a negative test or to quarantine.

Currently the Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna jabs have been approved for use by the EMA.

Tourists would be required to have had their second dose at least seven days before travelling, the minister added.

British tourists make up the largest group of visitors to the island and made more than a million trips to Cyprus in 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Other countries are optimistic they could be seeing British tourists back soon.

"We believe that summer has to be the beginning of the end of this bad experience," says Fernando Valdes, Spain's secretary of state for tourism. "I can't give a specific date, that will depend on how the pandemic evolves."

He said it depended how the vaccination programme was going in both countries - but noted "the UK is increasingly moving towards their goals".

Greece has also said it hopes to open this summer, saying its government is taking all the necessary actions for this to happen.

Simon Calder, travel editor at the Independent, said, with the UK's vaccine programme ahead of the rest of Europe, the British holidaymaker was going to become "quite appealing to countries who are working out how to rebuild their tourist industries while at the same time minimising risk".

Although family members might have different vaccination statuses, potentially meaning only some were able to travel unrestricted, he told BBC Breakfast he thought there would be "a way found".

Mr Calder said it was possible Cyprus would reflect its travel rules from last summer when visitors were able to get a test three days before their flight and noted that under-12s are excluded from the current travel restrictions.

Holiday firms say they are expecting more people to take holidays in the UK this year

Holidays in the UK could begin more than a month earlier, with people in England potentially permitted to stay in self-contained accommodation such as holiday lets from 12 April under Mr Johnson's road map for easing lockdown restrictions.

This has led to many people opting to plan a holiday at home, resulting in them becoming more expensive, according to researchers at Which.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×