More details due on foreign travel, but holidays will be expensive this year

Ministers have pledged to give more information about the options for summer holidays at Tuesday night’s press conference on the coronavirus pandemic, but travel firms are warning that foreign trips are likely to be both expensive and in short supply.

Insiders suggest the foreign affairs ministry is set to announce that the total ban on international travel will expire on May 15, clearing the way for travel to countries flagged as yellow or green risk areas.

Nevertheless, travel firms say, that given only a few countries are currently classed as low risk, demand for the few trips will be enormous.

‘The whole world is fighting for the available beds in yellow countries,’ Steven van der Heijden, chief executive of travel firm Corendon told news website Nu.nl. He expects package holidays to be up to €200 per person more expensive.

In addition, popular destinations such as the Canary Islands, Crete, Corfu and mainland Spain are still not open to Dutch tourists, and it will take even longer before destinations like Turkey and Egypt are cleared,’ Van der Heijden said.

Vaccinations

Vaccination passports are another issue which still has to be sorted out. The EU is supposed to publish its plans for an app which will show if people have been vaccinated shortly.

The Netherlands is also working on an app-based system, but already has a tried and tested paper document which shows what vaccinations the carrier has had.

However, not all regional health boards in the Netherlands are registering coronavirus vaccines in the yellow vaccination booklet – the official, multi-lingual registration system operated by the health ministry for years.

‘You need to have a plan B, given that the Europe-wide vaccination passport is not yet a reality,’ said Willeke de Groot from the state printing company SDU, which issues the booklet.

Some countries, such as Germany, Austria and Iceland formally recognize the yellow book as proof of vaccination.

Register

The regional health board umbrella group told broadcaster NOS that is up to individual health boards whether or not they use the yellow booklet to register the coronavirus vaccine.

Almost half of Dutch are planning to spend the summer holiday in the Netherlands, an international survey by the Netherlands board of tourism and conventions NBTC has shown.

The organisation, which has been gauging people’s intentions to travel to the most popular holiday destinations since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, found that although the majority of Dutch are eager to go on a summer break, some 45% said they will not go abroad.