"The appeal is to refrain from any travel that is not absolutely necessary," said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in Berlin on Monday. Foreign Office spokeswoman Maria Adebahr expressed similar sentiments: "The absence of a travel warning is not an invitation to travel." But the decision must be made by each individual.

The German government had decided on Friday to remove Majorca and other regions in Spain, Portugal and Denmark from the list of Corona risk areas, thus also lifting the travel warning of the Federal Foreign Office. This means that since Sunday, holidays on the Germans' favourite island are once again possible without quarantine and compulsory testing on return. Only when entering Spain must a negative test be presented.

After the decision by the federal government, flight bookings for Mallorca jumped. The largest airline, Eurowings, therefore added 300 additional flights to the Balearic island for the Easter period. Tui now wants to open the first hotels on Mallorca as early as next weekend. In a fortnight, the Easter holidays begin in most German states.

Countries and regions abroad where there are more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in 7 days are classified as risk areas. This still applies to most of Europe. On the Balearic Islands, however, the value on Friday was only 21.3.

This also led to the lifting of the travel warning, which allows bookings to be cancelled free of charge. In the travel advice on the internet, however, the Foreign Office now continues to advise against "non-essential, tourist travel". However, this is no more than a recommendation; it has no legal consequences.

In their most recent resolution of 3 March, the Federal Government and the Länder had already "urgently" appealed to all citizens to refrain from "non-essential travel within Germany and also abroad".

Original text: dpa. Translation: Mareike Graepel