Cyprus opens doors to vaccinated tourists from 65 countries including UAE
28 April, 2021
Fully vaccinated tourists from 65 countries like the UAE will be allowed to visit to Cyprus from May 10, without restrictions.
The island's tourist minister, Savvas Perdios, said on Monday that they can neither need to give a negative Covid test nor quarantine.
So long as potential tourists have obtained both doses of a Covid vaccine, they'll be permitted to enter, irrespective of when the next jab was administered, he said.
Armenia, Bahrain, Canada, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, america and Switzerland are among the countries joining the UAE on Cyprus's green list.
Last month Israeli and British tourists received permission to go to the east Mediterranean holiday destination without entry restrictions, and Cyprus hopes Monday's announcement will further revive its Covid-bedevilled tourism sector.
Tourism contributes around 15 per cent of the country's gross domestic product but earnings plunged 85 % in 2020 as coronavirus laid waste to the sector.
Britain may be the island's major market for tourists, creating a third of practically four million arrivals in 2019. Nearby Israel is its third-biggest source.
Cypriot authorities are looking forward to the UK government to announce when it'll lift its ban on Britons taking holidays abroad. A decision is expected in early May but the traffic light system for travel under which UK tourists must operate was already outlined.
Whether tourists would want to visit to Cyprus is another matter.
The island went into a two-week lockdown on Monday following a record surge in cases, and its own second-largest source for tourists, Russia, has put chartered flights on ice as a result.
"We are confident that once our epidemiological picture improves, charter flights will be allowed, something we be prepared to happen in the coming weeks as the vaccination rollout progresses," said Mr Perdios.
If tourists do holiday on the Mediterranean island, they have to adhere to health protocols such as for example mandatory mask wearing and social distancing.
Cyprus has recorded a total of 298 coronavirus deaths and 61,576 infections to date.
A new survey on Monday rating how EU member states responded to the pandemic gave it a score of +3.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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