The UK is evaluating the Canary Islands separately to Spain for the green list

The UK ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliot, said yesterday that right now the British government is in the process of studying the possibility of allowing its citizens to travel to the Canary Islands without having to undergo PCR tests or 10-day quarantine after returning to the country, as currently required for anyone visiting Spain. 

Elliot, who visited the Canarias stand in Fitur yesterday to meet with the regional president, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the Minister of Tourism, Yaiza Castilla, stated that “we have received an official request from the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands to see if they can be considered in a different way from mainland Spain, and we are studying this as we speak, and we are looking in detail if the particular circumstance of the Canary Islands allows a different decision due to the islands geographical location."

The Ambassador was more cautious about this scenario than Torres was, in relation to a possible different application in the Canary Islands (and Balearic Islands) than in the rest of Spain, of the traffic light with which the United Kingdom regulates the visits of its nationals to other countries.

At the moment, the colour for the whole of Spain is amber, which will be reviewed every three weeks. Torres said yesterday that he was confident that the UK will authorize a differentiated application of that traffic light to the Canary Islands this week.

Elliot agrees that "there is no lack of desire in the United Kingdom to add the Canary Islands to the list of destinations to which to travel without restrictions, because the Canary Islands are a destination much loved by the British, and we greatly appreciate the interest there is to welcome tourists again. We all want to do it sooner rather than later, but we must to do it in a safe way," he stressed before recalling that "today Spain does not allow people from the United Kingdom to enter if it is not for non-essential reasons, so a change would be necessary in Spanish regulations as well, which I know that is being considered”.

After reminding that the list of countries is made every three weeks and that the next one will be done for June 7th, he insisted that "we will have to see what the scientists say. We don't want to close again because things go wrong.” Regarding the possibility that the decision on the Canary Islands is prior to the revision of the list of countries to which restrictions continue to apply, Elliot said that "it is possible as we have made different recommendations at different times because the situation of the archipelagos is worth taking into account".