Cyprus - from May those with 2 vaccinations can holiday freely

[VaVaGloom]

Knew it would end up a two tier travel system!

www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/cyprus-to-allow-british-tourists-from-may-1-b922274.html

More sitting at home and sucking it up for the rest of us!

And the entire population of the UK holidaying in the UK doesn’t sound feasible to me, unless most people are willing to holiday in their own houses,

Perhaps we could all swap houses.

@Unsure33 - because the vaccine is free, but tests for the purposes of travel are expensive, and not everyone thinks the permitted tests are good enough to ensure people who are travelling are not transmitting coronavirus, as a test is a snapshot of a moment in time, so not like a vaccine. And because some people don’t think anyone should be travelling atm. And some people don’t think people should be going on overseas holidays anyway, ever. And some people just like to complain.

House swapping is no good for hotels and the tourist trade. Could just as well not swap houses and just go shopping locally.

House swapping is no good for hotels and the tourist trade.

It wasn't a serious suggestion.

@Walkaround i’m not mixing them up - safety and fairness are both important issues. If you start treating the vaccinated and unvaccinated populations differently that is going to cause resentment. Admittedly it’s not the most magnanimous response but everyone has been under strain one way or another so it’s hardly unexpected.

I’m not suggesting a long term end to international travel just i’d prefer a very cautious approach based on scientific knowledge that vaccination does stop transmission.From speaking to friends in medicine the thing they are most concerned about is a vaccine resistant strain - obviously that could be home grown but equally we know that international travel has brought new strains and generally cases previously.

I haven’t seen my Mum since Sept i’d really like to concentrate on getting to a point where we can visit people in this country! Totally appreciate other people have family abroad and will be looking forward to a point when they can visit them too.

It doesn’t really matter what you or I think anyway as the Government will do what they see fit

We can't tell other countries what rules they can have . We are vaccinating rightly so on risk factors

Yes you are mixing up safety and fairness and then not even wanting “fairness.” Yes of course selfish human beings’ basest motives and sentiments will be a factor in all decision making, but don’t pretend “fairness” is behind people arguing it is “unfair” for the vaccinated to be treated any differently from the unvaccinated.

Or to put it another way, it is not “fair” to destroy jobs in some sectors for no reason other than pretend “fairness”, when said fairness only applies to those wealthy enough to be annoyed some people got to go on holiday before them (rather than at all).

@Ultimatecougar

As Cyprus thinks it's a good idea to prosecute a woman for reporting a gang rape that was actually caught on camera, I wouldn't be booking a holiday there even if it were the only place available.

Agreed. Why would any woman want to go there on holiday? Even if I didn’t have a daughter to look after, my answer would still be “no way”.

@changi

House swapping is no good for hotels and the tourist trade.

It wasn't a serious suggestion.

But lots of people do move out of their houses to let them out over the busy tourist season. We once stayed in a house in Torquay where the owners "moved" into a local B&B for the Summer as it was considerably cheaper than the rent they were charging for their 4 bedroom home in a prime tourist location.

but don’t pretend “fairness” is behind people arguing it is “unfair” for the vaccinated to be treated any differently from the unvaccinated

I think it is unfair to treat unvaccinated people differently to those who are vaccinated when people are still waiting their turn for vaccines. I suspect a lot of people feel that way! We have all had to make sacrifices over lockdown. Apply that to lockdown here - if the people who (quite rightly) were vaccinated first start to be allowed to socialise together after their second vaccine ahead of everyone else how well received do you think that would be?

Safety and when it’s advisable to allow international travel is also important (especially to those in the Uk who will not have any protection from vaccines for some months to come - or at all in the case of children). Not importing new strains (especially vaccine resistant strains) underpins the rest of the recovery plan here!

@VaVaGloom - but you’re already treating them differently by not vaccinating them... and people with dementia or learning disabilities in care homes, for example, quite rightly should be prioritised for letting their relatives in to see them once they are vaccinated, imvho. Making blanket statements about what is “fair” and what isn’t is just facile.

And I say the above despite the fact I will, of course, be pissed off if I don’t get to see family overseas this year purely because my age means I haven’t yet been vaccinated. I would be even more pissed off if by the time I was vaccinated, all travel was banned again, because of the spread of mutant strains of the virus before I’d even had a chance to be vaccinated against current strains or to travel.

Don't forget it depends on the airlines too. I live in Cyprus. I haven't seen my parents in more than a year. They've had their flights cancelled 5 times now and the latest lot of flights have been cancelled since the most recent announcement.

Some airlines had decided not to fly here until July anyway and I know of people who have had August flights cancelled.

My parents are senior citizens and have both had their first dose but not even got an appointment for their second and they're saying they're not even going to look at flights again until they have actually had the second dose and even then they want to see figures improving on both sides first.

Cyprus isn't going to see an influx of tourists just yet. Also bear in mind the economy here is very dependant on the UK. There's loads of people with relatives and second homes here it's not just tourism.

@mrsnec
BA have just put on sale 4 flights a day from London to larnaca this summer. They’re pretty confident!

YANBU. I have long thought it unfair that elderly people have been allowed to swan off on holiday whilst others are working or have children in school. From now on no one should be allowed to holiday in term time out of solidarity.

Give.your.bloody.head.a.wobble.

They’ll open up
None of these European countries want a second year with no tourism. They were gearing up last year with airport testing. Uk citizens will be preferable as our cases will be lower as we roll out the vaccine.
It’s be ok
This is one country saying what they will accept vaccinated people with no restrictions. They have not said that’s all they will accept. They’ve made no comment about entry with a negative test. It’s just to early for that. But it will become clearer over the next 2 months

@Frazzled2207 DM did say she's being 'bombarded ' with emails from BA at the moment. They're a 5 hour drive from LHR though and in recent years favoured budget flights from a small airport. I've done both and I get it.

But our clients who had Tui, Whizz and Jet 2 f!nights booked have already booked those BA ones instead. It's Easy Jet who are messing my folks around.

They were thinking of flying up to LHR so it depends if the domestic schedule is sorted too.

Incedently, I would never judge a country on one isolated incident and that aside I have been very satisfied with how the pandemic has been handled here and have always felt safe here.

@frozendaisy

I am so pissed off about this. I have been relatively ok about "things for the greater good of society" up until this.

So the kids will be in masks in schools, no practical lessons, whilst some seniors are sipping beer on a Cyprus beach?

So fucking unfair.

I am proper pissed off.

Really if this goes ahead never again should the young be curved to protect the old. All in this together, bollocks.

Yep been ok until this.
But it might not happen might just be media stirring so trying to keep a happy disposition.

I get the tourist industry needs money from somewhere, anyone, it's just the timing. Families will not have parents double vaccinated until end of summer holidays, at the earliest.

Aaaaarrrrhhhh..................

So you would be happy to step over 1000 dead bodies a day, as we were seeing in January, to be first in the queue to go abroad? In May when the kids are (yay!) in school anyway?

Everyone will get vaccinated in due course.

No one at all will be able to go abroad if all the holiday flights and resorts go bust.

Seems fair to me. Cyprus has the right to decide who has the right to enter their country, just as the UK can.
Of it means the airlines can get their industry back, and Cyprus can welcome back some tourists, good luck.
It will be mainly the older people who would have had both doses by May anyway plus it depends on the UK governments timetable going to plan, when it comes to foreign travel.
Don’t see what the problem is really.

I have family in Cyprus. Most people work in hospitality over there and because of that. Covid has been crushing.

Government support packages are not as generous there and people have really struggled with hotels being shut.

I completely understand why they are opening their country to vaccinated individuals, but they haven’t said unvaccinated won’t be allowed - they’ll just need a negative covid test and potentially quarantine, depending on how bad our case numbers are here.

Their vaccine roll out has been quite slow, so they really do need to look after their own.

Aren't lots of people boycotting Cyprus because of the way the police there treated that poor British woman who was gang-raped by the Israeli tourists a few years ago?
It means as if the island is a no go to me anyway.

@nicewheels

Aren't lots of people boycotting Cyprus because of the way the police there treated that poor British woman who was gang-raped by the Israeli tourists a few years ago? It means as if the island is a no go to me anyway.

Unfortunately not

@nicewheels

Aren't lots of people boycotting Cyprus because of the way the police there treated that poor British woman who was gang-raped by the Israeli tourists a few years ago? It means as if the island is a no go to me anyway.

No one would go anywhere if everyone boycotted countries whose judicial systems make a mistake. There are miscarriages of justice literally everywhere, not to mention all the countries with "different" views on women's rights (such as Dubai).