Malta added to Netherlands, Denmark & Germany’s safe lists for travel

The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have officially removed Malta from their COVID-19 high risk lists, allowing travellers returning from Malta to the respective countries to avoid quarantine on arrival.

Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo on Friday praised Malta’s inclusion in The Netherlands and Denmark’s safe travel list, while Germany’s recategorization of Malta came last week when the UK announced its shock omission of the island from its own Green Safe Travel List.

In the case of Denmark, Malta became the first country to be placed on it’s ‘yellow list’ for travel. Danish authorities are currently advising against non-essential travel to all other countries.

Malta’s status as a yellow-list country means travellers returning from Malta to Denmark, as is the case with those returning from Malta to the Netherlands and Germany, will not have to quarantine on their return.

Minister Clayton celebrated Malta’s inclusion by Denmark praised the Government’s strong vaccination programme couples with restrictive measures being eased gradually as the leading factors behind the positive development.

He added that the Scandinavian market remained important for a small island like Malta.

That being said, inbound tourism numbers of the Danish and Dutch markets do not compare to UK numbers. Indeed, 649,624 of Malta’s 2,753,239 tourists came from the UK in pre-COVID 2019. For comparison, in 2019, 211,546 travellers from Germany visited the island making it Malta’s fourth-largest tourism market.

In contrast, 59,528 inbound tourists came from the Netherlands while specific figures were not released for Danish visitors in a National Statistics Office release, falling under the ‘other’ countries category.

On Malta’s omission from the UK’s list, Malta Tourism Authority CEO Johann Buttigieg, speaking to specialist travel news portal Skift in a broad interview on the outlook of tourism in Malta, said the authority expects to have its final meeting with the UK by the end of May, and that by the first week of June, the UK will release its new list to include Malta.

He also said that authorities are expecting June to be a quiet month in terms of tourist arrivals as people continue to adjust to travel restrictions and requirements across Europe and the globe.