Unvaccinated British travellers to mainland Portugal will only have to provide a negative Covid test and will no longer have to quarantine under a change to its travel rules.

       The Portuguese government announced that it is dropping the 14-day quarantine for those who have not been jabbed.

       Instead, unvaccinated UK visitors must present a negative Covid test result – either a cheap and swift lateral flow, taken within 48 hours of departure, or a slower and more expensive PCR test within 72 hours.

       Portugal, however, is not ditching its requirement for fully-jabbed travellers from the UK to also show a negative test result on arrival – a move the travel industry had been expecting.

       The country remains on the UK amber list, which means unvaccinated Britons have to quarantine for 10 days at home on their return to the UK but double-jabbed people only have to have a PCR test on day two.

       The changes are likely to appeal to younger Britons seeking late summer sun who have not been fully vaccinated. Under-12s need not take a test, although every traveller must have a completed online passenger locator card.

       The move puts Portugal on a par with Greece and Spain, which only require tests and no quarantine for unvaccinated Britons. France bars non-essential travel to the country by unvaccinated people from the UK.

       Portugal is the latest European country to ease its requirements on Britain, with Italy announcing at the weekend that it would be dropping its requirement for all vaccinated arrivals to quarantine for five days. Unvaccinated arrivals are still required to present a negative test and self-isolate for five days.

       The Italian health minister, Roberto Speranza, tweeted on Saturday that, while he had signed an order to keep restrictive measures in place for those arriving from other countries, vaccinated people entering from the UK would be exempt from quarantine.