Confusion over Malta’s travel rules has led to a dip in holiday bookings from the UK since the initial surge last week, when the island was placed on that country’s green list for travel, according to a major travel agency.
Malta has imposed strict rules on those travelling from the UK in an attempt to keep the highly infectious Delta variant out of the island. Only fully vaccinated British tourists are allowed to fly in, with PCR tests now insufficient and those without vaccine certificates denied boarding.
A spokesperson for major UK travel agency Thomas Cook, which offers travel packages to the island, said bookings for Malta have been lower in recent days than they were immediately following the green list announcement last Wednesday.
“Now that we have more clarity around arrivals into Malta, it’s disappointing that unvaccinated teenagers are not able to go on holiday with their parents and we would encourage a greater use of testing to help families enjoy much-needed weeks in the Maltese sun,” the spokesperson said.
The Maltese authorities only made the announcement on the new rules for British travellers after the UK had placed Malta on its green list.
Many had already booked their trips to the island.
The UK is not yet offering a COVID-19 vaccine to those between 12 and 15, which means they are not allowed to travel to Malta.
The Thomas Smith spokesperson confirmed the agency had received cancellations either because prospective travellers or their teenage children had not yet been fully vaccinated. He did not give a figure for the cancellations.
The travel agent still expects bookings for Malta to remain steady, however.
“We expect a reasonable level of bookings from vaccinated adults who are able to travel over the summer.”
Right after Malta was greenlisted last week, Thomas Cook had told Times of Malta it had processed thousands of bookings for July, with some keen holidaymakers setting off for Malta even before the list was officially updated.
Meanwhile, some of the first British tourists who landed on the island on Wednesday afternoon following the greenlisting expressed frustration at the slow vetting process at the airport.
Some said they had waited in long queues for over two hours and complained social distancing was not observed.
Speaking to Times of Malta soon after their landing, a middle-aged couple said the whole process was “a nightmare” and that “people should not even bother flying”.
Other tourists, coming from various countries including Spain, The Netherlands and Germany, also complained about the long queues.
They said they were disappointed that after all the effort to social distance while on the plane, they were crammed in long queues for hours at the arrivals lounge.
Since tourists started returning to the island, Malta International Airport has repeatedly urged the health authorities to step up efforts to digitalise the process in order to avoid having hundreds of people queuing for hours on end.
Malta is set to link up to the EU-wide vaccine certificate today, a move that many hope will speed up the process.
In the case of UK travellers, the NHS app was not immediately recognised and travellers were told they could only use the print version sent by post.
This move resulted in a large group of travellers not being allowed to board their plane to Malta because they showed up at the gates with the NHS app.
However, in a statement on Thursday afternoon, the health authorities said they would now accept the digital app.