Travel Update 21 September 2021

Welcome to our weekly travel blog!

This is the start of a weekly travel blog that I will be doing which will cover everything that is happening in the space of travel and which hopefully might assist you with some much needed information. I hope to share updates on what countries are opening up, what documents you need, tips, suggestions when travelling through the pandemic and ultimately share information that can enable a more educated, safer and hopefully haste free experience when going on your next travel experience whether it be for leisure or corporate.

What happening at the moment on the re-opening of countries?

• Seychelles opened up last week to South Africans and Mauritius opens up to vaccinated travellers on the 1st October.We now have some really cool destinations to travel to and they are all amazingly beautiful island destinations…could be worse;)
• The US now plans to open up to vaccinated South Africans from the 1st November which is fantastic news for those travellers, students and corporate travellers seeking to re-unite ties with friends, family and colleagues in the US. Travellers must be vaccinated and have a PCR test 72 hours before the flight.
• Australia is set to trial out a vaccine passport. Initially this will only be for diplomatic purposes but eventually rolled out to its citizens. Current countries with a vaccine passport include  Singapore, Japan, South Korea, the UK, the US, and neighbouring Pacific Islands.The vaccine passport is set to be available as a QR code linked to real passports, confirms Travel Off Path.
• The thorn in South Africas side is the remaining ban on South Africans to the UK. While the “traffic-light” system in the UK has been removed they have now just implemented a red list of countries prohibited from entering the UK unless you are a citizen. All UK residents are also advised not to enter South Africa as well which is a big blow or our friends in inbound travel.We still need a PCR test and have to quarantine at our expense for 10 days. Here is the complete breakdown as to who and what is required and from where the UK will accept vaccinations and vaccination passports.

In other news , SAA is set to enter the skies again in a version 2. This time round it enters our skies under new management headed by COO Simon Newton-Smith who has over 25 years experience in the aviation industry and the airline now has a strategic private equity partner who owns 51% of the airline thereby assisting the government with hopefully a better managed airline. Initially routes will only be in and around Africa and a step by step process will be looked at and adjusted as and when needed. Planes have been checked and cleared for take off on the 27th September.

Well that is about it for this week.

Take care, keep safe and lets stay positive as hopefully each week brings positive developments in the travel industry.

Regards

Giles