British holidaymakers may have to wait even longer to visit their favourite destinations including Spain, Greece and France.

According to reports, such destinations will likely be kept off the government’s ‘green list’ of tourist destinations under the next foreign travel review.

It comes as 12 countries were added to the ‘green list’ on May 7 - including Gibraltar, Australia and Portugal.

The Telegraph is reporting that when the second batch of ‘green list’ countries are published in the week leading up to June 7 hotspots including Spain, Greece and France will be out of luck.

'Near-misses' set for green list

The countries expected to feature will be destinations that were ‘near-misses’ the first time round.

Those might include remote islands such as Fiji, the Cayman Islands, Grenada, as well as Finland and Malta, where infection and variant rates are low enough to be added to the shortlist.

A third updated list is likely to be revealed in time for a review of the government’s foreign travel policy on June 28.

So far, the foreign travel list will be reviewed every three weeks from reopening.

When a country is added to the ‘green list’ this means people in England will be able to travel to those destinations without having to quarantine upon return.

Falling Covid cases and the success of the vaccination rollout so far has allowed lockdown restrictions to be gradually eased across the UK.

Roadmap out of lockdown

On May 10 Boris Johnson revealed that this month will see further sectors of the economy allowed to open up, including international travel.

The UK Government has confirmed that ‘Step 3’ of the lockdown roadmap in England will take place on 17 May, following a further review of the data and four key tests.

The 12 countries on the green list so-far are Portugal - including the Azores and Madeira - Australia; New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar Falkland Islands and Israel.

According to the government countries where they judge the risk to be lower - based on vaccinations, infection rates, the prevalence of variants of concern, and their genomic sequencing capacity (or access to genomic sequencing) - will be allocated green status.

Some green list countries will continue to have restrictions in place for those coming from the UK – including quarantine measures – so Mr Shapps said passengers are encouraged to check all requirements and FCDO travel advice before they book any foreign holidays.