Travel News: India, Bali, Vietnam Announce Opening Plans

By Maureen O’Hare, CNN

It’s been a pretty good week for future jet-setters around the world. The UK and Israel have both cleared their travel “red lists”, while India, Bali and Vietnam have all announced plans to reopen.

Here are 10 things we learned on pandemic travel this week.

1. The United Kingdom has reduced its “red list” to just seven countries…

The UK has introduced a new system for international travel, relaxing testing requirements for many fully vaccinated travelers and designating ‘red’ or ‘green’ destinations.

From October 11, England is expected to remove 47 countries from its red list, leaving just seven red destinations: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

Rules vary across the rest of the UK (i.e. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.) Here is the CNN Travel Information on what travelers need to know.

2.… But there was anger at his quarantine rules

There was accusations of discrimination in early October, when the UK relaxed its on-arrival travel rules, but fully vaccinated visitors from India and many African countries still faced mandatory quarantine in the UK.

The UK has now changed its restrictions so that as of October 11, vaccine certificates will be accepted from nearly 40 countries that were previously ineligible, including India, Brazil, Chile, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.

The vaccines recognized in the UK are Oxford / AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), or formulations thereof.

3. The CDC has lowered the risk category for France, Portugal and South Africa

There was good news for Argentina, France, Iceland, Lesotho, Morocco, Nepal, Portugal and South Africa, as well as Americans eager to visit.

All eight have been moved from level 4 – the highest risk category from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – up to level 3 (which is always “high”, for your reference). This means that travel advisory to the United States should be fully vaccinated before traveling there and to avoid non-essential travel if you are not vaccinated.

Meanwhile, six destinations have moved from Level 3 to Level 4 (“very high”), meaning non-essential travel should be avoided by US citizens.

These destinations are Armenia, Austria, Barbados, Croatia, Latvia and New Caledonia.

4. India will start letting in tourists this month …

India to start granting tourist visas to foreign visitors for first time in 18 months, government says announced Thursday.

Tourists arriving by chartered flight will be able to do so from Oct. 15, according to a press release from India’s Interior Ministry. Other arrivals will be authorized from November 15, he said.

5.… And Bali will gradually reopen as well

The Indonesian island of Bali will reopen its airport to international arrivals on October 14, officials said.

Bali Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar will begin receiving arrivals from a number of countries, according to Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Indonesia’s Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment.

However, he did not say whether foreign tourists would be allowed. here is what we know so far.

6. Vietnam plans to reopen completely by June 2022

Vietnam plans to reopen major tourist destinations from December to vaccinated visitors from countries deemed “at low risk” Reuters reports, before a full reopening scheduled for June 2022.

The country announced in september that it would reopen the popular resort island of Phu Quoc to foreign tourists vaccinated this month, but that the reopening was postponed to november.

Vietnam still has a long way to go when it comes to vaccinating its population: just over 13% are fully vaccinated, making it one of the lowest rates in Asia.

7. Soon New Zealand will only allow foreign nationals to enter if they are vaccinated.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced in press conferences this week that the country is moving away from its Covid-19 elimination strategy and will start using vaccine certificates as early as next month.

From November 1, all foreign nationals entering New Zealand will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Air New Zealand, the country’s national carrier, has also announced that passengers on its international flights will need to be fully vaccinated from February 2022. Get full details in our Covid Travel Guide to New Zealand.

8. Canada has issued a vaccination warrant for trains and planes

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a national Covid-19 vaccination mandate for rail and air travelers aged 12 and over, as well as for staff.

The warrant will begin to apply by the end of October, with a short one-month grace period during which negative Covid-19 tests will be accepted. (More details here).

In South Asia, since the beginning of this month Pakistan demanded that all air passengers aged 17 and over be fully immunized.

9. Israel now allows its citizens to travel anywhere

Israel has emptied its “red” travel list, which means that Israeli citizens and residents can now travel anywhere in the world.

Until October 4, Israelis were still not allowed to travel to Turkey, Bulgaria and Brazil due to high rates of Covid.

Under current guidelines, travelers returning to Israel who have been vaccinated three times, or twice in the past six months, are only required to self-quarantine for 24 hours, or upon receipt of a negative PCR test. – whichever comes first.

Unvaccinated people or those whose second dose is more than six months old should always be quarantined for a full week or receive two negative PCR tests.

Israel’s Ministry of Tourism has also announced that it is working on plans to allow individual vaccinated tourists to visit the country from November. Currently it is only open small groups of tourists or people visiting family members.

10. The airline industry is expected to lose nearly $ 52 billion in 2021

Airlines will lose $ 51.8 billion in 2021, more than expected, according to an outlook update from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Net losses for 2020 have also been revised upwards to $ 137.7 billion. Other woes are also expected next year – a loss of $ 11.6 billion is expected. The group expects the industry to return to profitability in 2023, IATA chief executive Willie Walsh said at the group’s annual meeting in Boston on Oct. 4.

The other big news from Boston is that the global group of 290 airlines have agreed to a resolution committing them to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

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CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Pamela Boykoff, Matt Friedman, Hadas Gold, Swati Gupta, Marnie Hunter, Masrur Jamaluddin, Lilit Marcus, Francesca Street and Nimi Princewill contributed to this report.