Travel advice per country again, a sun holiday abroad becomes possible

A sun holiday abroad becomes possible, as the government is about to drop the general travel advisory. From 15 May the advice applies per country again. Back to tailored advice from the ministry.

• BZ is in this case Foreign Affairs. This ministry normally ‘always’ gives the official travel advice per country. From green (travel is possible) to yellow (travel is possible, there are risks) or orange (essential travel only).
• But last year country-specific advice sometimes clashed with the government's advice (‘Do not travel’). Which is why kept TUI and Transavia, for instance, flying to the Canary Islands (colour code yellow).
• In the end the government overruled the various advisories and the whole world on code orange. For half a year.

Travel advice per country

Caretaker minister De Jonge: “So far the advice is to go abroad only if it is urgently necessary. A general piece of advice, in other words.”

“From this coming Saturday, 15 May, that changes: we will then look per country or area at what the situation is and whether you can safely go there, as we did last summer.”

“Across Europe the number of vaccinated people is rising and the number of infections is falling”, De Jonge goes on. “Which means more and more countries can become a safe holiday destination.”

A holiday in a yellow country

At the press conference the health minister points to the ministry's colour codes. “If a country is yellow, you can in principle holiday there. But you do have to be careful, because corona has not gone away there.”

So things like compulsory face masks or distancing may apply. “That is for those countries themselves. You may also have to show a negative test result. That too is for countries themselves.”

From yellow to orange

De Jonge also points to the risk that countries can turn orange again. Last year that happened to Croatia (in July) and the Canary Islands (August), among others. The difference is that there is now a quarantine requirement on returning from an orange country.

“In short: we can holiday abroad again, but it is not entirely carefree yet.”

A sun holiday abroad: a digital travel pass

Ultimately travel should become easier with a corona passport of Digital Green Certificate. “(…) A digital travel pass. With it you show that you are vaccinated, or that you tested negative recently.”

Finally De Jonge is optimistic about the system. “That is how we win back normal life bit by bit.”

Partly thanks to the corona passport, countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain are keen to receive foreign tourists. Italy is ready too.

Those countries are still orange. That is expected to change soon. The Greek islands and the Canary Islands stand a good chance of going back to yellow first. We will keep following it all for your sun holiday abroad.