The Latin American Travel Association applauded the long wished for removal of the remaining seven countries on the UK government’s Covid travel red list.
Fully-vaccinated arrivals from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Haiti and Venezuela will no longer have to quarantine in a hotel from next Monday.
However the red list system will be maintained in case Covid cases rise or new risky variants are discovered.
“I’m delighted that the remaining Latin American destinations are now coming off the red list. Latin American counties have excellent vaccination programmes and recognition of this is long overdue,” said Danny Callaghan, the CEO of the Latin American Travel Association.
“There has been extensive engagement with the UK Government to get to where we are, and I’d particularly like to mention the efforts of Natalia Royo, Panamanian Ambassador to the UK, who has taken the lead on bringing the UK and Latin American health departments together.”
“After many challenging months, LATA members will be pleased that they can look at taking their clients to this amazing part of the world once again. This is a very well-needed boost for the Latin American travel sector,” Callaghan added.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the removal of the countries was a ‘great boost for travel and all those people employed in the travel sector.’
Shapps added: “We have been able to do this now because the variants of concern that we have been tracking are no longer of concern to the chief medical officers.”
