Turkey will welcome British tourists without a Covid vaccine this summer

British tourists will be able to travel to Turkey without a Covid vaccine this summer, the country’s tourism minister has confirmed.

According to Mehmet Ersoy, holidaymakers will be welcomed ‘with open arms’ and with no travel restrictions.

He said: “We are looking forward to welcoming British tourists with open arms, as we did safely last summer. We have world-class border processes in place for ensuring travel will be low-risk throughout Turkey.

“We are working with the British authorities to ensure these necessary processes are world-class and as up-to-date as possible. We will not require vaccination passports from international travellers when entering the country.”

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Mr Ersoy added that the requirement for travellers to provide a negative Covid test to enter Turkey may also be removed from next month.

He continued: “After April 15th, we will look at the number of cases again, we will re-evaluate the situation and then decide if we will continue to require negative PCR test results from British citizens entering the country.

“I expect there will be no such requirement from British visitors as the UK Government is rapidly, and impressively, rolling out the vaccination program for the whole nation and a significant portion of the population will be vaccinated by early summer.”

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The government is planning to restart international travel from May 17th at the earliest, with a decision on this due to be announced on April 12th.

Portugal has also said it hopes to welcome British tourists without proof of a Covid vaccine or other restrictions this summer.

Meanwhile other countries, including Greece, Spain and Cyprus, want to introduce vaccine passports to allow tourists into the country.