ABTA Operational Bulletin 06th July 2020

Good afternoon
The ABTA Destinations team to continue to monitor the “global against all but essential travel” restriction that was introduced by the Foreign Secretary.

FCO global advisory against ‘all but essential’ international travel  – list of  exempt counties
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has updated its global advisory against ‘all but essential’ international travel to exempt certain destinations that no longer pose an unacceptably high risk of COVID-19.
The revisions being made to the  FCO’s travel advice is based on an assessment of a range of factors that could present risks to British nationals when abroad, using different criteria to the list of countries exempted from self-isolation measure and that it is based on a range of factors including epidemiological risks, capacity of local healthcare systems, transport options and law and order.
The 67 countries and territories that have been exempt from the FCO global travel advisory which is effective from 4 July are listed in the below table

The FCO has updated the travel advice guidance document to reflect these changes
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus

Important note
The FCO travel advice is different from decisions on UK border measures, so the below list is specific to FCO travel advice only and should not be taken as a list of exemptions from UK quarantine.

Quarantine Exemptions – England  
The Government has now published the details of the travel corridors for the countries and territories that will be exempt from quarantine on arrival in England from 10 July.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-travel-corridors#travel-corridors-countries-and-territories-exemption-list

From 10 July 2020 you will not have to self-isolate when you arrive in England, if you:

• are travelling or returning from one of the travel corridor countries
• have not been to or stopped in a country that’s not on the travel corridor list in the previous 14 day

This applies to all travel to England, by train, ferry, coach, air or any other route.

If you have been to or stopped in a country that’s not on the travel corridor list you will have to self-isolate until 14 days have passed since you left that country

Important note
The quarantine measures and decisions on UK border measures are distinct from the FCO travel advice country exemption from the global all but essential travel restriction”. The below list is specific to quarantine measures only.

The countries and territories exempt from the FCO global “all but essential travel restriction may be different to those countries included in the quarantine exemption list. 

Travel corridor list – quarantine exemption on arrival in England

From 10 July 2020, unless passengers have visited or stopped in any other country or territory in the preceding 14 days, passengers arriving from the following countries and territories will not be required to self-isolate on arrival into England.

Ireland is already exempt as part of the common travel area, as are the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

In addition, we will be exempting the 14 British Overseas Territories.
This list may be added to over the coming days following further discussions between the UK and international partners.

Information for travel into Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be published in due course by the Devolved Administrations.

The ABTA Destinations team will continue to monitor the situation and provide a further update when the more details become available.

Best regards,
The ABTA Destinations Team
Destinations and Sustainability

Email: destinations@abta.co.uk
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