Yep, you heard that right. The British Government has announced that South Africa will join 47 countries moved off the red list and strict hotel quarantine requirements will be dropped.
Travellers arriving from non-red list countries who have received any of four vaccines – Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen – in the UK, US, EU, and 18 other countries now have their inoculation status recognised and can avoid isolation as long as they test negative within two days of their arrival. Everyone else arriving from non-red list countries must still isolate for at least five days but can use the ‘test to release system’ to be freed.
This decision is long overdue, but it will come as a huge relief to hundreds of thousands of tourism workers in South Africa, in addition to scores of holiday companies in the UK. Our UK operators have already seen a surge in enquiries from sun-starved Brits looking for a winter escape, and early estimates suggest that upwards of 300,000 British passport holders expect to visit friends and family or take advantage of highly competitive holiday deals across Southern Africa in the coming months.
If like us you feel like shouting from the rooftops that South Africa is Travel Ready with the announcement of South Africa’s lifting off the UK’s red list, we’ve prepped these fun social media tiles for Instagram and Facebook for you to use for free.
Simply visit https://traveltosouthafrica.org/download/14239/ to download the ‘Reunited’ Toolkit.
The SATSA-led lobby to get South Africa off the red list since May gained momentum recently as Team South Africa stepped up to the plate to highlight to the British Government that the information they are using to keep us on the list is flawed.
Big business, scientists, and government added their voice to the fray, putting pressure on the British government to review their facts – this culminating in a meeting between scientists from both countries.
Source: SATSA