Iceland becomes the first Schengen country to welcome all international travelers proving their recovery from Covid-19 or vaccination evidence

Published on : Friday, March 19, 2021

On Thursday, Iceland became the first Schengen country to welcome all international travelers who can prove their recovery from Covid-19 or vaccination evidence.

This move is aimed towards rescuing the country’s stressed tourism sector, and it also remains largely symbolic: on Thursday, only one flight landed at Iceland’s Keflavik international airport from Frankfurt with 150 passengers, which is a far cry from the dozens that used to land daily prior to the pandemic.

“It’s nice to be a tourist, it’s nice to have vacation,” said Pia Bodelier, a 46-year-old doctor from western Germany who possessed a vaccination certificate with her.

The European Union has announced plans for a digital vaccine travel certificate expected to be in place by summer.

Iceland is among the first countries in the world to accept vaccination certificates, and has since the end of January, welcomed travelers from the Schengen area as long as they can prove that they have received their two vaccine doses.

That now includes any traveler, including those outside the Schengen zone, who can present either the WHO’s Yellow Card vaccination certificate or a positive Covid-19 test taken within 14 days.

Any of those three options will permit travelers to skip Iceland’s requirement for a negative Covid test before departure and five-day quarantine with tests on day one and five.

Tourism is one of the most important business sectors of Iceland accounting for 8.1 percent of gross domestic product, with two million people visiting the North Atlantic Island of just 365,000 people in 2019. The country is eager to see the industry flourish again.