Thousands of Brits expected as lockdown easing continues

  • Lusa
  • 17 May 2021

Portugal is one of the few beach destinations on the UK's reopening plan list, which left out popular countries such as Spain, Greece and Turkey.

The United Kingdom starts a new stage of its reopening plan on Monday, including permission to travel abroad for holidays. Still, only some countries, including Portugal, allow entry to Britons.

Of the 12 countries and territories on the British Government’s ‘green list’, which authorises travel for non-essential reasons and does not require a 10-day quarantine on return, seven do not allow tourists in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei and the Falkland Islands.

As one of the few beach destinations on the list, which left out popular countries such as Spain, Greece and Turkey, this has led to high demand and bookings.

The TUI group told Lusa it had added five more flights a week from today and allocated larger aircraft to have additional capacity.

From today, people in England will also be able to eat inside restaurants or have a beer in a pub, rather than being limited to terraces as they have been until now, and visit family or friends indoors and hug them.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are following similar but slightly different reopening paths.

Other leisure venues such as cinemas, museums, theatres and concert halls may reopen, albeit with capacity limits for large events.

However, the excitement about tourism and catering reopening is overshadowed by the anxiety that a variant of the coronavirus discovered in India is causing because it is spreading rapidly.

Almost 70% of British adults received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and 38% received both doses.