France is to lift restrictions on travel to the country from the UK, effective tomorrow (Friday January 14).
The French government had imposed a travel ban on December 18, 2021, in response to the growing number of cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the UK.
This ban will now end, with France’s tourism minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne confirming the move on Twitter.
⚠️ #frontières | Nous assouplissons les conditions d’entrée en 🇫🇷 depuis le 🇬🇧 pour les voyageurs vaccinés.
➡️fin des motifs impérieux et de l’isolement à l’arrivée
➡️un test négatif <24h sera demandé au départ
Le décret sera publié demain matin, avec entrée en vigueur immédiate pic.twitter.com/cthQc0D6qP— Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (@JBLemoyne) January 13, 2022
Fully vaccinated UK travellers will no longer need to have a “compelling reason” to enter France, and will not have to self-isolate on arrival.
However they will need to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 test, taken 24 hours before leaving the UK.
Responding to the news Julia Simpson, President and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), said:
“WTTC welcomes the reopening of French borders to UK travellers. Once a variant is endemic closing borders is pointless and only damages livelihoods especially in travel and tourism one of the hardest hit sectors during the pandemic.
“France is one of the biggest markets for UK tourists who, according to WTTC’s 2021 Economic Impact Report, account for 14 per cent of overseas visitors. Total international visitor spend in France was worth more than €60 billion pre-pandemic.”
