Hundreds of visitors arrive in island from outside Bailiwick, only few could not prove vaccination status
MORE than 2,600 people have travelled into Guernsey from outside the Bailiwick in the first four days since travel restrictions were relaxed.
Airlines and Condor had reported ahead of 1 July that bookings were strengthening for when the border restrictions were relaxed.
Now people coming through the blue channel – those from within the Common Travel Area who have been double vaccinated for at least two weeks – no longer need to quarantine.
The latest airport figures show that 1,822 people arrived between 1 and 4 July. Of these, 1,553 were from the UK and 269 were from Alderney and Jersey.
Airport departures have been a bit more subdued, with 1,040 in the first four days. Of these, nearly 800 were going to the UK.
Condor has been the other main choice for travel, with 1,164 travelling on the ferry from the UK, Jersey and France.
A number of visiting boats have come into St Peter Port, with 62 arriving in the first four days, totalling 182 paid nights.
Based on an average of 2.5 passengers per boat, that would be about 155 visitors.
Historically, July would be one of the busiest months of the year at Guernsey Airport, with more than 87,000 people travelling through it in July 2019. That equates to about 2,900 people per day, meaning the start of July is still well below pre-pandemic levels, despite pent-up demand. But it is still well above pandemic levels, when an average of about 6,000 passengers flew per month between May and December 2020.
Some arrivals chose to return
OVER the weekend, some arrivals who could not prove their vaccination status and did not want to self-isolate had to return to where they travelled from.
Following changes to border restrictions from 1 July, there is no longer any self-isolation requirement for travellers entering the Bailiwick who have had two doses of MHRA-approved vaccine 14 days prior to arrival. Fully vaccinated travellers must upload details of their vaccination status to the Travel Tracker in order to qualify for the blue category.
Programme manager for the Covid-19 response Richard Evans said: ‘During the weekend, some travellers who stated they were fully vaccinated had either not completed the process or were unable to prove their vaccination status, which was expected given how new the changes are.
‘Our welcome team worked with these passengers and in the vast majority of cases were able to resolve things, however, in a couple of instances the traveller was unable to arrange proof of vaccination and decided to return rather than isolate.’
