Why European nations are starting to cut Covid red tape for tourists

Competitive reopening will see countries racing to remove barriers as they seek to attract British travellers, writes Simon Calder

Portugal is going to end the requirement for travellers to present a negative Covid test before departure (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Crikey: that was quick. In my weekly travel email at 7am on Friday morning, I bemoaned the web of Covid-related red tape stifling travel in Europe. By 1pm a number of nations had sought to cut some of that tape.

For months, British travellers have been mesmerised by the UK government’s complex and incoherent sequence of travel rules in response to Omicron. Our policy of unilateral deterrence of international tourism ends next Friday. But I noted with dismay that the European countries that I – and probably you – love so much had begun 2022 by doing their darndest to keep us out.

France and Italy have taken a leaf out of the UK’s book to dabble in Covid-19 touristic self-destruction. The French government wrote off its ski industry’s most profitable fortnight over Christmas and New Year with a travel ban on Brits of questionable medical value (but one that was presumably politically advantageous). And Italy, like France, demands jabs plus tests to allow in travellers from the UK.