ARCHIVED - Germany recommends against travel to the Canary Islands

The list already includes the rest of Spain

Another blow for the Spanish tourism sector as the Government of Germany has added the Canary Islands to the list of areas considered at risk due to the prevalence of coronavirus infections, thus extending a series of warnings to all of Spain that was first applied in mid-August.

The Canary Islands has been experiencing a recent upsurge in new cases.

The German Authorities have been gradually increasing the areas of Spain considered to be a risk for German nationals and at the end of August German Chancellor Angela Merkel recommended against travel to these risk areas, after her government agreed a review of the protocols applied to travellers returning from the countries included in the list.

Instead of mass testing, the German authorities are now in favor of imposing quarantines on these travellers, so that they do not leave isolation until they have delivered a negative test carried out at least five days after their entry.

The tests can be done before travelling to Germany -a maximum, 48 hours before arriving there, or once in the country, either in centres established in airports, train stations and bus terminals, or in medical offices.

Until the results are obtained, the traveller must remain in home quarantine. Anyone refusing to take the test can be fined up to 25,000 euros.

Germany is itself experiencing an upsurge in new Covid cases and this type of measure is becoming increasingly common as international travel for leisure purposes becomes increasingly difficult.

Last year 11.18 million people visited Spain from Germany, accounting for around 13.3 per cent of the 83.7 million visitors from abroad during the year. The Canary and Balearic Islands are particular favourites with the German market and their loss will be a bitter blow to a sector already reeling from the impact of Covid.

Only the UK exceeded the contribution made by Germany (with 18.1 million visitors), but British nationals are also few and far between at the moment since the British Government imposed a 14 day quarantine on all travellers from Spain.

The need to support the tourism sector will be a particularly pressing issue in Spain this winter season, as in “normal” years tourism accounts for 12 per cent of GDP.

In the Balearic Islands around 45% of GDP depends on the tourism sector, four times more than the national average. In the case of the Canary Islands, tourism GDP is around 35%.

For the foreseeable future the number of international visitors to this country will be extremely limited due to the number of restrictions on travel to Spain and the crisis unfolding in the airline sector as flights are cancelled and consolidated to maintain some level of service.