UAE CITIZENS to Follow 3 Stages when Travelling Abroad

Abu Dhabi, UAE

The UAE (United Arab Emirates) Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) has issued a set of COVID-19 related guidelines for Emirati passengers who intend to travel for their summer holidays.

1. Before travelling Prior to traveling abroad passengers are required to comply with the necessary COVID-19 precautionary measures.

Passengers should also check the airline’s guidelines, as well as the entry rules and regulations of their final destination, and complete any required forms or paperwork prior to departure.

All citizens travelling abroad must hold a paper-based negative COVID-19 PCR test certificate from an officially recognised testing centre. Customers must hold a negative certificate for a test taken no more than 72 hours before departure.

In the event that the person suffers from a high temperature or displays symptoms of respiratory diseases, he will be isolated and evaluated by the health centre at the airport. If the passenger is suspected to have contracted the coronavirus, he will then be transferred to health authorities in the emirate.

2. What to do abroad UAE passengers should monitor their health daily and be aware for COVID-19 symptoms. If such symptoms appear travellers are required to immediately consult a doctor. In the event that an Emirati tourist has tested positive for COVID-19, they are required to visit the nearest emergency centre as soon as possible, while maintaining a social distance and contact the UAE mission of that country.

3. Rules for UAE arrivals The regulations for returning passengers are similar to those when initially flying out, and include the use of face masks, social distancing, and not displaying any COVID-19 related symptoms. If a passenger shows any kind of symptoms, they will be isolated and evaluated by health authorities at the airport.

Further conditions may exist, depending on whether passengers arrived from medium or high risk countries.

Landing in Dubai If you are a citizen of the UAE, and coming through Dubai’s airport, you are exempt from the PCR test prior to departure, regardless of the country you are coming from. However, you will be tested on arrival in Dubai. On arrival to Dubai International Airport, UAE Nationals must download and register on the COVID-19 DXB Smart App.

Some countries require travellers leaving the UAE to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test certificate on the return journey, according to the latest update published on the website of Dubai Airports. This test must be carried out no more than 72 hours before the scheduled return flight time.

Landing in Abu Dhabi Passengers are required to take a PCR test no more than 72 hours before the flight, undergo a thermal screening and another COVID-19 PCR test on arrival at Abu Dhabi airport.

TOURIST CORRIDOR ON COSTA RICA & NICARAGUA BORDER

The Costa Rican Tourism Institute is going to turn the border canton of La Cruz, in the province of Guanacaste, North Pacific, into an attractive tourist corridor for national, European and binational tourism with Nicaragua.

La Cruz now offers great tourist attractions, with on-going tourism investments that aim to help create hundreds of jobs, as well as opportunities for social progress through rural tourism and community tourism. Nicaragua, in turn sees that tourism is linked to the improvement of the quality of life of the towns and through tourism it can assist the flow of visitors between towns to continue bringing progress to other communities.

Within the new tourist corridor visitors will be able to experience bird, whale and dolphin watching, diving, snorkelling and see first-hand, the life of local fishermen.

La Cruz bay, Costa Rica

England's amber list currently includes popular destinations like France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Under the amber code, the government advice is for people to not travel to these countries.

The UK Foreign Office advises ‘against all non-essential travel’ to amber list countries. This means that your travel insurance will most likely be invalid should you fall ill, have an accident or incur costs related to sudden changes due to the never ending ‘’health crisis’’.

Travel insurance is invalidated when the government advice is against travel; it is based on the Foreign Office advice not if the destination is on a green, amber and red list.

Basically, if you decide to travel despite the official advice, most travel insurers will not cover you, even if you took out a special Covid insurance.

On 17th May, the UK government opened the travel door, held it open, but basically told you not to walk through it!

OMAN TOURISM SECTOR FELL BY 75% IN Q1 OF 2020

Oman’s tourism sector dropped by 75% in the first quarter of 2020 due to the fall in the number of visitors and hotel guests. Tourism revenue for 2020 fell by 63% compared to 2019.

The recovery plan for the tourism sector sees the establishment of visitor centres in the sites registered in the World Heritage List, private museums, the provision of museum displays in all castles and forts and beach tourism. The recovery plan also aims at nurturing domestic tourism and includes cultural, geological and adventure tourism.

Tourism will provide employment to Omanis who are renowned through ages for their hospitality. There are 142,000 workers in the heritage and tourism sectors, of which only 15,000 are Omanis. There is now a real opportunity to create jobs for Omanis in these important sectors to provide 7,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Saija village, Oman

NEW RESTRICTIONS FOR FOREIGN TRAVELLERS TO GUATEMALA

The Atitlán volcano and lake, Guatemala

With the new variant of the coronavirus, Guatemala is to limit entry into the country by foreigners who have been in Brazil, the UK, Northern Ireland and South Africa, in the 14 days prior to their arrival. North and South Africa, exceptions are all those people who reliably certify having been vaccinated completely against Covid-19.