Maldives moves up to Italy's travel green list

Maldives has moved up to Italy's Travel Green List.

The island nation, a popular travel destination among zealous travelers, was removed from Italy’s Travel Red List and bumped up to the green list on September 22.

The country was among eight countries moved up to green list, including Bangladeshi, Egypt, Kenya, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

With this update, travelers will no longer be required to undergo a quarantine period of 10 days upon arrival.

There are 54 countries currently on Italy’s red list. Maldives being removed from the list means an increase in travelers and leads to the promotion of Maldives tourism among the market.

Italy ranked third in the Maldives top tourism markets by the end of 2019, with 136,343 arrivals recorded. Italy remained in the top five tourism markets of Maldives during 2020 despite the country’s tourism industry taking a major hit due to Covid-19. 46,690 arrivals from Italy were recorded by the end of 2020.

This comes the same day Maldives was removed from the United Kingdom’s Travel Red list, after weeks of remaining hopeful of being moved up to the country’s Travel Amber List.

Countries that moved up to UK’s Travel Amber List along with Maldives included Turkey, Egypt, Oman, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kenya.

Travelers from these countries will not be required to present negative PCR test results upon arrival, if they have received both doses of Covid-19 vaccination. Arrangements will be made for these travelers to undergo PCR testing within two days of arrival, according to the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps.

The island nation was added to the list following a spike in Covid-19 cases as a fourth and more infectious wave of the virus was confirmed back in May.

Maldives’ High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Farahanaz Faizal expressed gratitude to all those who raised its case on behalf of the Maldives. She had been repeatedly raising concerns over the UK government’s decision to leave Maldives on the red list, despite low case numbers and high vaccination rates.

Health Protection Agency (HPA) had previously revealed that the reason Maldives is on UK's red list is because the country had not completed the Genomic Sequencing test required to move up the list.

Green lists are among three lists compiled by governments -red, amber and green- and lists rules for travel to the respective nation from other countries.

As the country aims to welcome 1.3 million visitors this year, being removed from the red lists of both countries will be a major boost to Maldives tourism. UK is also among the top 10 tourism markets of the Maldives currently, with 18,123 arrivals having been recorded from UK so far this year.