According to dpa information, the federal cabinet intends to pass a resolution to that effect today, Wednesday, but it will allow exceptions for individual countries that meet certain criteria. These will include, for example, the development of infection rates, the efficiency of health systems, testing capacities, hygiene rules and travel restrictions. The travel association DRV had also called for such standards for destinations outside Europe.

The German government also intends to continue to strongly advise against cruises. Several cruise ships had problems finding a port to enter in March due to infections on board.

On 17 March Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) had issued a travel warning to tourists for all of the approximately 200 countries in the world after the outbreak of the corona pandemic. Up to that date, travel warnings had only been issued in the event of danger to life and limb, for example in war zones - thus enabling free cancellation.

Last week, the Federal Cabinet decided to lift the travel warning on 15 June for 31 European countries. These include Germany's 26 partner countries in the European Union, the United Kingdom, which has just left the EU, and the four countries of the border-free Schengen area that are not members of the EU: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. For 29 countries, the lifting of the warning will take place on 15 June, for Spain and Norway slightly later, only because entry barriers still apply there. For these countries there will only be so-called travel advice notes in future.

The extended travel warning for popular travel destinations such as Turkey, Egypt or Tunisia, among others, represents a severe setback for the tourism industry, which has been badly hit by the Corona crisis. The tourism policy spokesman of the FDP parliamentary group, Marcel Klinge, criticised the extension of the travel warning as a "death blow to the German travel industry".

The tourism industry is one of the industries hit hardest by the Corona crisis. The summer business with foreign travel is usually the industry's strongest season in terms of turnover, with around 2,300 tour operators and more than 11,000 travel agencies in Germany. According to the DRV, 70 percent of all the more than 71 million trips taken by Germans go abroad.

Turkey, in particular, is already aggressively „courting" German tourists. According to dpa information, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to phone Chancellor Angela Merkel this week to talk to her about this topic, among others. It is now getting difficult for the German government: any lifting of a travel warning for a country outside the EU could upset other countries. If the travel warning for Turkey is lifted, Egypt could complain – and so on.

Meanwhile, Spain has eased the travel ban a little. From Monday onwards, the Balearic Islands - the group of islands to which Majorca belongs - plan to allow up to 10,900 holidaymakers from Germany to enter the country. Germany was chosen for this pilot project for two "obvious" reasons, said the regional president of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, in Palma de Mallorca. "Germany is the country from which most holidaymakers come to us, and the epidemiological figures are very similar to ours.“ The whole of Spain does not want to reopen for tourism until July 1.

Original text: dpa

Translation: Mareike Graepel