Germany wants to lift travel warning for 31 countries

Germany wants to lift its worldwide travel warning for tourists for 31 countries by the beginning of the summer holidays, a key point paper from the federal government has revealed. 

Travel warning to be lifted within Europe in June

The federal government is planning on lifting its worldwide travel warning for tourists from June 15 for 31 European countries, if the further development of the coronavirus pandemic allows. In addition to Germany’s 26 partner countries in the European Union, the warning would also be lifted for the UK and the four non-EU Schengen countries: Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

These details have emerged from a key point paper entitled “Criteria for the Enabling of European Tourism”, which was made available to the German Press Agency and looks set to be adopted by the cabinet as early as Wednesday. 

On March 17, Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas issued an unprecedented worldwide travel warning for tourists. Until then, Germany had only issued travel warnings for areas which posed a significant danger to life, for instance war zones like Syria or Afghanistan. 

Clear signal for start of summer season in Europe

The lifting of the travel warning would be a clear starting signal for cross-border summer holidays in Europe this year. In so doing, the federal government is guided by the principle that “the revival of tourism is important for travellers and the German travel industry as well as for economic stability in the respective countries”, according to the draft paper. 

If (partially) lifted, the travel warning would be replaced by localised travel advice, which would detail the risks for each individual country. Germany is also pushing for the entire European Union to adopt a number of common criteria for reintroducing anti-corona measures, including the maximum limit of 50 new infections per 100.000 inhabitants within seven days.