NL residents avoiding vacations to Covid hotspots

Netherlands residents are avoiding Code Orange areas when booking their holidays. They're also not planning ahead much anymore - the number of last-minute bookings tripled, BNR reports based on figures from Vliegwinkel.nl, EU-claim, and the Vakantiediscounter.

"There are fewer bookings than we are used to, but the need to go on holiday remains," Laura Vlaanderen of Vakantiediscounter said to the broadcaster. "As soon as destinations switch to orange, people make a last minute switch."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a four-tiered travel warning system for the cornavirus period, ranging from Green's "all is well" to Red's "definitely do not go there". Code Orange means that all unnecessary travel to an area is strongly discouraged, and people who return from a Code Orange area will have to quarantine at home for 10 days.

While more and more areas are being escalated to code orange, there are still some places where Netherlands residents can holiday. "Looking at flight holidays, you can still go to Portugal, except for the capital Lisbon, and Italy. Curacao and the Greek mainland are also still yellow and therefore  popular for bookings," Vlaanderen said to the broadcaster. "There is still options, but they are limited."