There is a very, very slim possibility of a lifeline for the Tourism Industry in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands.
There was uproar when Majorca, Ibiza and Minorca were added to no-go area lists due to increasing infection rates in mainland Spain, particularly because there were a lot less cases in the Balearic Islands and infection rates here were nowhere near UK infection levels.
Now, the British Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps is suggesting that the UK Government consider regional lockdowns instead of lumping the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands in with the rest of Spain.
That’s sent hopes skyward that maybe, just maybe there could be some light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel.
"When Spain went into lockdown, we saw the numbers coming up in one area and coming down in others, so we do need to be absolutely sure that we're capturing the disease as it actually is and sometimes it's not quite as straightforward as it sounds,” said Shapps. "Where there are Islands, I think it's something we will look at and we are looking at, it all depends on the data, but we are looking at how you can regionalise effectively.”
The British Government has been heavily criticised for slapping quarantine rules on countries at the last minute and just this weekend some 20,000 holidaymakers were forced to make a mad dash to the airport to avoid a mandatory 2 week quarantine when they got home from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad & Tobago and some of them paid eye-watering sums of money to beat the deadline.
Shapps did warn travellers that ANY air bridge could be axed at short notice, but thousands took the risk and went on holiday anyway, clearly thinking that the worst possible scenario was unlikely to happen.
Mr Shapps has acknowledged that it is incredibly inconvenient for Brits to rush home from countries placed on the red list at the eleventh hour, but said that tourists who want to travel abroad should do so with their eyes wide open.
“This is a very unpredictable virus which doesn’t play ball in the way it can take off in a country, so anyone travelling this year knows there are risks involved,” he said.
Amidst all the doom and gloom there is actually some good news, but not for Spain unfortunately.
Portugal has been taken off the UK’s risk list, which means Brits can fly there without having to isolate when they return and it will come as no surprise to anyone that flights are selling like hot cakes.