Government publishes list of 59 countries exempt from quarantine restrictions

The government has published the list of 59 countries exempt from quarantine restrictions, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

From 10 July, travellers will no longer have to self-isolate for 14 days when arriving in England from one of the ‘travel corridor countries'. This applies to all travel to England, by train, ferry, coach, air or any other route.

However, travellers who have been to a country that is not on the travel corridor list in the 14 days prior to arriving in England will have to self-isolate until 14 days have passed since they left that country.

Ireland is already exempt as part of the common travel area, as are the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. In addition, the 14 British Overseas Territories are exempt.

The government said the list of countries may be added to over the coming days following further discussions between the UK and international partners.

Joss Croft, chief executive of UKinbound said "English tourism businesses, in the inbound and outbound industry, will be breathing another sigh of relief today following the official government announcement that arrivals from over 50 countries will no longer need to quarantine from Friday 10 July. International visitors to the UK contributed over £28b to the UK economy in 2019 and, although the industry will not be able to contribute this level of revenue in 2020, changing the quarantine rules will allow businesses to hopefully recoup some of this lost revenue. With key source markets opening up earlier than the UK, many of their consumers will already have decided where they will be travelling this year, so it will be a long recovery for inbound tourism.

"There are however a number of very important inbound markets that are still excluded, such as the USA, China and countries in the Middle East. We're also still waiting to hear if the devolved nations will follow suit, and lift quarantine. The health and safety of visitors of course needs to be the first priority, but the government needs to understand that the inbound industry will only begin to fully recover when quarantine is removed for all markets and so will need continued financial support."

The list of travel corridor countries can be found here.