From October 4, England will introduce a significantly more straightforward system for international visitors. In an announcement welcomed by the events industry, the government has outlined the following updates:
- Goodbye to the red, amber, green traffic light system: all countries will now be categorised as either ‘red list’ or ‘rest of world’. The vast majority of typical BLE attendees are not currently on the red list.
- Simplified rules for the ‘rest of world’ group including US and EU residents.
- Fully vaccinated travellers will be required to follow three steps: book and pay for a day 2 COVID-19 test, to be taken after arrival in England; complete your passenger locator form any time in the 48 hours before you arrive in England; take the COVID-19 test on or before day 2 after you arrive in England.
- The required test will be a lateral flow test (as opposed to a PCR test).
- Eight destinations have been removed from the red list including Turkey and Pakistan.
- Recognition of fully vaccinated status from a further 17 countries and territories including Japan and Singapore.
Read the full announcement at www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england#new-rules
BLE and Licensing International will be hosting a webinar next week to discuss these changes. The webinar will take place on Wednesday 29 September at 3pm BST (UK time). You can register at licensinginternational.org/events
This positive news will help to make the international licensing community’s travel to BLE much more straightforward – you can register via www.brandlicensing.eu/en/home.html
