The Netherlands became the third European country to announce tougher Covid-19 restrictions for American tourists attempting to visit the nation, announced the government earlier today.
As of Sept. 4, all “Vaccinated Americans” will be quarantined upon arrival in the Netherlands for a period of 10 days.
The length of the quarantine can be cut in half if the Covid-19 test they’ll need to take returns negative.
Starting Sept. 6, vaccinated Americans will also need to submit a negative PCR COVID-19 test (It was not needed before).
And what will happen with unvaccinated American travelers? It’s simple. They were barred from entering the Netherlands.
The dramatic drop in demand for passenger air transport and the recently announced containment measures has already been taken as a new threat for both the air transport sector and other tourism-dependent businesses.
Airline leaders have started to express discontent with the measures.
“Politics is not responding adequately, the traveler is again the victim. Because each European country can set its own rules, it could result in another patchwork quilt. Time and again we advocate European harmonization and once again the EU ignores it,” stated Marnix Fruitema, a spokesperson for Barin, the umbrella organization for Dutch aviation.
This is a “huge step” backwards for the airline industry, said the Dutch airline KLM spokesperson.
On Monday, the United States was removed from the European Union’s safe travels list mostly because Biden’s administration still refuses to open borders to Europeans, despite its lower case numbers and higher vaccination rates.
As of today, Burgaria has been the only country completely barring American citizens regardless of their vaccination status.
France and Czech Republic did the same but the restriction only applies for unvaccinated Americans.
For its part, Italy and Germany increased restrictions for all travelers who have been in the United States in the past 14.
And Portugal, Croatia and Spain have announced they will not follow EU recommendations for the time being.
More announcements are expected to be released over the next few days.