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South Africans wishing to travel to the UK from August 12 (tomorrow) will need to break the bank as new travel changes and quarantine costs are being put in place.

Since the UK introduced the “traffic light” system in May, which categorises countries according to COVID-19 risk analysis, South Africa has been red-listed.

Being in a red list country in the previous 10 days and then travelling to the UK is strictly limited to returning residents and citizens who need to quarantine for 10 days in a state-managed hotel.

Per BusinessTech, the current quarantine costs are £1 750 (around R36 000) for 10 days and 11 nights, where an additional rate for one adult or a child over 11 is £650 (around R13 300).

That’s already extremely high, but from tomorrow the price for quarantine will rise to a whopping £2 285 (around R46 800) and £1 430 (around R29 300) for each additional adult.

The UK government did say, however, that the option to apply for a deferred repayment plan when booking would be available for those “facing significant financial hardship as a result of this charge”.

If you go for this option, you will basically need to pay the debt back to the government in 12 monthly instalments.

The UK government has also considered other ways to keep the costs low, such as zero fees for children aged under five.

Thanks, that’s nice.

They also warn that you could be prosecuted for fraud if you provide false information or omit key information from the quarantine application.

Additionally:

“If you have not arranged a quarantine package prior to your arrival in England, you face a penalty of up to £4 000 [around R82 000] and will still have to pay for your quarantine package on arrival,” it said.

South Africans wanting or needing to travel elsewhere still face strict travel restrictions in many other countries.

Skyscanner’s mapping tool can confirm that currently there are 86 ‘major restrictions’ from other countries towards South Africa.

These restrictions are really knocking our already bruised tourism industry, especially from the direction of the UK, which was our biggest overseas source market prior to the pandemic.

But there is hope, some organisations are petitioning to have South Africa removed from the UK’s red list.

The petition needs 10 000 signatures to force the UK government to respond, and with 100 000 signatures, the petition is considered for debate in parliament.

[source:businesstech]