England has announced simplified rules for international travel, making attending the leading European licensing event much simpler.
From 4th October 2021, England will introduce a significantly more straightforward system for international visitors. In an announcement welcomed by the events industry, the UK government has outlined the following updates:
- The red, amber, green ‘traffic light’ system has been scrapped – 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
- There will be simplified rules for the ‘rest of world’ group, including US and EU residents
- Fully vaccinated travellers will be required to follow these 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
- Required test will be lateral flow test (as opposed to PCR test)
- Eight destinations removed from red list including Turkey and Pakistan
- Recognition of fully vaccinated status from a further 17 countries and territories including Japan and Singapore
The full announcement from the Gov.UK website can be accessed here.
BLE and Licensing International will be hosting a webinar next week to further discuss these changes. The webinar will take place on Wednesday 29th September at 3pm BST (UK time). Readers who wish to attend can register via this link.
Informa, the organiser of BLE, says: “This positive news will help to make the international licensing community’s travel to BLE much more straightforward.”
Peter Hollo, Licensing International Germany, commented: “Come to BLE, that’s the best thing I can say. We’ve had so many great virtual shows and meetings, but now it is time to meet in person again; make BLE your big licensing industry family reunion. For those, who are still anxious: I fully understand your thoughts, because we all had to face so many changes and have learned to separate and to distance from other people. Now it’s time to re-programme with a strong community, human interaction, and people who are exactly like you. It’s about time to leave your work-from-home spaces and meet the people you have missed.”
Laurent Taieb, Licensing International France, added: “The Licensing International France team will attend this new edition of Brand Licensing Europe. We are looking forward to meeting our French members and international colleagues. Our licensing industry will be well represented this year with 22 French companies exhibiting, and with the travel restrictions easing between the UK and France, and also Europe, events are starting again. This is the ideal time to meet different partners at BLE.”
Register for BLE 2021, which takes place 17th-19th November at London Excel, at www.brandlicensing.eu.
