Cyprus to allow vaccinated Brits on holiday from May

Your summer might be saved

Summer holidays abroad appear to be back on the cards as Cyprus prepares to open its doors to vaccinated Brits from May onwards. While Boris Johnson's 'roadmap' to freedom doesn't specifically mark one date as to when international travel for holidays will be permitted again, the government plan to gradually relax restrictions throughout the spring, allowing Brits to jet off for some much needed sunshine in the summer. And it looks as though Cyprus will be one of the first places Brits are allowed to travel. The island's Deputy Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios told Cyprus News Agency: "We have informed the British government that from May 1 we will facilitate the arrival of British nationals who have been vaccinated ... so they can visit Cyprus without a negative test or needing to quarantine." Travellers would need to have received their second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at least a week before arrival, and Cypriot authorities would still reserve the right to carry out random tests at their discretion. Tourism remains the biggest industry in Cyprus, and the Coronavirus pandemic saw it nosedive by 85 per cent throughout 2020. People visiting from the United Kingdom make up the biggest portion of tourists in Cyprus. It is unsurprising, therefore, that they are keen to start letting overseas tourists back in as soon as it is safe to do so. While they have suffered as a result of a depleting tourism industry over the last year, the Mediterranean island have not been hit particularly hard by the virus. As of Thursday this week, it had recorded just 36,004 infections and 232 deaths.