Ministry of Tourism doubt the Islands will be on the UK green list for travel

The Ministry of Tourism for the Canary Islands said yesterday that they doubt the Islands will be included in the UK’s ‘green list’ of safe destinations for international travel from May 17th. Yaiza Castilla said they believe it will be prevented by the epidemiological levels of the islands, which will still be higher than those demanded by the British for travel, but above all that the overall situation of the whole of Spain will be evaluated, whose average indices are even worse.

This is why the Canarian Government continue to insist on the demand they have been making for some time, that the situation of the archipelago be considered separate from that of the mainland territory, both by the Spanish State and the Government of the United Kingdom, she said.

Castilla said that they don’t want people to get their hopes up unrealistically as even though it looks like the islands data is stabilising, there is no way it will be low enough by May 17^th, and there is no way we will be viewed separately by that date either. She did add though, that despite this "it is in our own hands to achieve that goal even if it is somewhat later, we must all work together to achieve our goals.”

She added that, first "we have to lower the levels of incidence in the Canary Islands until reaching those demanded by the British, because, if not it is much more difficult to defend our position by asking for differentiated treatment.”

In any case, the regional head of Tourism insisted on underlining that there are currently several "pieces of good news" that can make us think about the beginning of the reactivation of the tourism sector, among them is to implement the so-called "European vaccination passport", which would help facilitate the return of travellers to the islands from the European continent.

Regarding this, the EU says that the digital green certificate of vaccination and immunity against Covid-19 will be operational as of June despite the discrepancies on its use between European countries. This was revealed yesterday at the joint press conference of the Secretary of State for the EU, Juan González Barba, and his Austrian counterpart Karoline Edstadler, who have agreed on the importance of the document to recover mobility, but have differed in its use and applications.

For the Austrian Secretary of State the certificate will not only be "essential" for travel, but also "to go to theatres, restaurants or cinemas" and for activities that require great personal proximity such as massage services or hairdressing, for which in Austria a negative PCR test certificate is required. On the contrary, for González Barba, the "general perception" in the EU is that the certificate "will be an instrument that will facilitate mobility only".