Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Plans to visit Dubai for a vacation or see family members have shot up following a recent move by the United Kingdom to place UAE in its “amber list,” which means travel is now once again allowed.
Khaleej Times (KT), in a report, quoted Adnan Kazim, Chief Commercial Officer, Emirates, as saying: “Since the UK’s announcement, we’ve seen a surge in queries from customers desperate to travel to see their families, planning their kids’ return for the new school term, as well as their postponed business or holiday travel.”
The report also cited metasearch engine and travel agency Skyscanner, which noted that searches for trips to Dubai have increased by a 287 per cent between August 2 and 9, compared to the previous week.
Kazim expressed hope that the UAE would further be moved to the UK’s green list soon, citing low numbers of coronavirus cases in the Gulf country augmented by “the extensive testing at Dubai International Airport, and the careful health and safety measures in place across the passenger journey”.
All passengers travelling to Dubai from the UK must hold a negative result certificate of a Covid-19 PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before departure, the KT report stated.
Further: the UAE Embassy in the UK had announced, on Twitter, the following requirements for people planning to visit the UAE:
- Present a negative result of a PCR test conducted 72 hours before their departure.
- Register themselves in the Locator Form system.
- Undergo quarantine for a period of 10 days.
- PCR tests have to be done on the second and eighth day of the quarantine period.
Quarantine is not mandatory for travellers who have received both doses of Covid vaccine from the NHS in England, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the KT report said, adding that a PCR examination, however, has to be done on the second day for people in this category.
The UK recently moved the UAE, India, Bahrain and Qatar from the ‘red’ list of countries – from where travel is banned – to the ‘amber’ list, which means travellers from these countries will be allowed to travel to the UK effective, Sunday August 8. (Photo by Tawpee Comeso)
