The Cayman Islands has only made it to the amber category of countries to which British tourists are allowed to travel for holidays.
The new traffic light system announced on Friday by the UK Transport Minister, Grant Shapps places countries around the world in green, amber and red categories with specific conditions for travel in each case.
For the Cayman Islands the current amber rating means that British tourists should not travel here for leisure purposes, meaning tourism.
For persons who would need to travel to Cayman from England, upon returning to the UK they would need to complete a passenger locator form, take a series of COVID-19 tests, and quarantine for 10 days.
In a statement following Friday’s publication of the UK’s new traffic light travel system, HE Governor Martyn Roper said, “Although this may come as disappointing news to some, this is the first iteration of the red, amber and green lists and they will be reviewed every three weeks.
The self-isolation period from 17 May remains the same as faced by travellers today – there is no change, just a new name for the rating system.”
Mr Roper also said that “given Cayman’s excellent response to the Covid-19 crisis I am hopeful that Cayman will move onto the green list at the review point. My office will remain in close contact with the UK as the list evolves.”
He also pointed out that it’s worth noting that the UK’s 10-day self-isolation period is shorter than Cayman’s mandated quarantine period for non-vaccinated travellers. Furthermore, he added, in the UK there remains the option to pay for a test-to-release scheme on day 5. A negative result ends self-isolation early.”
“The UK, like Cayman, remains vigilant of their borders in the fight against Covid-19. As a result there are only a small number of countries on the green list, including places like Israel and Gibraltar where there are very high vaccination rates.”
Other Overseas Territories on the amber list are; Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, plus Pitcairn, British Indian Ocean Territory and British Antarctic Territory.
Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, St Helena, Tristan da Cuna and Ascension will move from amber to green list ‘all-clear’ list from Monday 17th May.
Keen to safely reopen its borders to international travel, Cayman is launching an intensified vaccination campaign starting with an all-day ‘vaccination rally’ this Saturday May 8th at the Owen Roberts International Airport where a vaccination centre is located. Mobile vaccination units are being considered.
The new PACT coalition government has set a target of 70 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated as the basis for reopening the borders, especially for tourism.
With the UK is a main tourism market for Cayman, eventually getting on the ‘green’ travel list, coupled with reaching the vaccination target here are main objectives looking towards a possible 2021 peak tourism season.
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