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There are some possible changes coming to the red, amber, and green lists on the UK’s “traffic light” system.

The red list, as you may well know, was introduced to help protect the UK people coming in and out of high COVID-19 risk countries, especially ones with virus variants.

Anyone wanting to touch down in the UK is currently being hit with a whopping quarantine hotel bill.

South Africa has been on the red list since the system was introduced in May and our tourism industry has suffered greatly. A loss of R26 million every day, to be exact.

Suffice to say, we have tried to knock our position on the red list off with a petition to the UK government, but that hasn’t worked out so well yet.

Nonetheless, there is still hope.

The Telegraph made a quick announcement that the UK government would be updating the rules for international travel soon:

COVID-19 data analyst, Tim White, has predicted that 12 countries popular with British travellers could be promoted to the amber list, removing the mandatory hotel quarantine requirement.

Among them are Turkey and the key winter sun destinations of South Africa and the Maldives.

All three countries are currently reporting COVID-19 rates significantly lower than the UK’s and are accepting British travellers.

Likewise, The Independent mentioned how the changes to the red list appear to be scheduled for tomorrow (September 16).

They also reference the expertise of White, who tweets as @TWMCLtd:

A dozen high-profile countries – all with either a big population or very popular with British travellers, or both – should be removed, thinks White.

These are: Argentina, Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Kenya, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa), the advocacy body for inbound travel into the country, representing over 1 300 businesses in the sector, is hard at work.

The body is understandably keen to see South Africa moved to the amber list, per Moneyweb:

The association has heightened its call for SA to be removed from the UK’s red list amid declining COVID-19 numbers locally, which saw the country moving to the lower lockdown alert Level 2 on Monday.

Satsa CEO David Frost made the point that “long after the threat from the pandemic fades, memories of Britain’s duplicity will endure,” adding later that their response is not rooted in any form of science.

The tourism body asserts that South Africa has made huge strides in managing the virus.

That is echoed by some in the UK:

In a joint statement, British politicians Ben Bradshaw MP, Lord Oates, and Baroness Chalker said:

“The evidence clearly points to South Africa being removed from the red list.

If the UK Government wants to retain the integrity of its traffic light system, it must reward countries which empirically demonstrate they are safe by granting them amber status.”

Good to hear.

One more day to see how this will pan out, then.

[sources:independent&thetelegraph&moneyweb]