Germany lifts blanket travel warning but only 11 countries ‘open’

The German government lifted its ‘blanket’ warning against international travel on October 1, but foreign office advice against all but essential travel still excludes all but 11 countries.

The Berlin government will also impose 14-day quarantine restrictions on travellers arriving from most countries from October 15, with early release from self-isolation only for those who test negative for Covid-19 after five days.

Advice against non-essential travel routinely renders travel insurance invalid except where travellers are already abroad when the advice changes.

The German travel industry vowed to campaign against the new restrictions.

However, German health minister Jens Spahn urged people to “avoid unnecessary vacations abroad”.

Speaking on German TV, Spahn said the rising Covid infection rate in Germany involved people returning from holidays and said: “We can learn from this in terms of autumn, winter and Christmas.”

German foreign ministry advice against travel due to Covid does not just cover ‘high risk’ countries but also those considered a lower risk with restrictions of their own.

The government introduced a three-tier, traffic-light system of travel advice as it ended the blanket warning.

This categorises high-risk countries as ‘red’, those with lower rates of infection but restrictions in place as ‘amber’ for ‘wait before travel’, and low risk as ‘green’ signifying a low level of infection but with advice to ‘take special care’.

The ‘red’ category currently applies to 123 countries – including Spain and Belgium – and to parts of an additional 15 countries including most of France, Croatia and Turkey excluding ‘the Turquoise Coast’, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Conway Castle in North Wales.

The ministry also advises against travel to many European cities including Vienna, Amsterdam, Geneva, Budapest, Dublin and Lisbon.

Only nine of the 26 EU member states fall wholly in the green category and two outside the EU – Tunisia and Georgia.

Germany imposed a global travel warning in March but lifted it for most European countries in June.

The government temporarily introduced free Covid tests on arrival for travellers returning from ‘high-risk’ destinations but withdrew this in September because of the pressure on testing facilities when it also reissued warnings for travel in Europe.

Germany’s response to Covid and travel has been hailed in Britain as an example to follow, but from mid-October Berlin’s approach will be similar to the regime the UK government appears to be moving towards.

In the meantime, figures suggest the German travel market has had no better summer than the UK’s.