article_detail

It’s hard to believe at the moment that the UK is the biggest emissor of tourists to Spain and that the UK alone sent 18 million tourists here last year given the current level of confusion over whether Spain actually wants British tourists to come here this summer or not.

 

Foreign tourists spent a staggering 92,278 million euros (that’s 92 billion) in 2019 on their trips to Spain, so nobody is under any illusions that getting the tourist industry back on its feet is important following the Covid lock downs.

 

But the messages coming from the Spanish Government at the moment are so confusing and contradictory that it’s currently impossible for those who would like to visit Spain to make proper plans for the coming summer.

 

All over the world there is confusion about how dangerous Covid-19 will be during the hotter months of the year and whether it is safe to travel.

 

Many of us will take the decision that a “Staycation” is the best option, limiting the possibility of contacts so that we can minimise the risk to ourselves and our families, but there are plenty of people out there desperate for a holiday who are happy to get on a plane and head abroad in search of some sun or who want to move between countries this summer for all sorts of reasons, amongst them some who were relocating to Spain and were trapped in the UK by Covid lockdown.

 

On Sunday, just hours after declaring that Spain was sticking to its guns and would NOT be opening its mainland borders to foreign tourists until July 1st, the Government made a complete U-turn and the Prime Minister made the surprise announcement on Sunday that it would be opening its borders for foreign nationals from the EU and Schengen nations on 21st June. 

 

On June 12th the Government had announced that tourists arriving in Spain would not be required to undergo a 14 day quarantine as is currently the case once the state of emergency ended.

 

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that the borders would be re-opened for other EU member states and other nations within the Schengen Zone on June 21st and for other countries (a list of which would be prepared and published this Thursday)  from 1st July depending on their specific epidemiological status.

 

Later in the day Spanish foreign affairs minister, Arancha Gonzalez, confirmed on Twitter: “Spain will open its borders with EU and Schengen-area countries as from 21 June, with the end of the state of alarm and end of quarantine

 

The UK was NOT specifically mentioned at either point and obviously the complicated situation exists that although the UK has technically exited the EU, current legislation applies during the transition period until the UK has concluded negotiations for its full exit on December 31st, but on Monday, a Spanish Government spokeswoman confirmed that the UK would be added to the list of countries whose citizens could travel to Spain.

 

The British media reported the good news. The Independent boldly declared in its headline that the British were welcome to come to Spain.

 

Frustrated Brits who have spent weeks attempting to book flights and endured a succession of cancellations and conflicting messages about whether they would even be allowed to come to Spain went online immediately and booked those flights.

 

It was a bit of a U-turn as reported yesterday.

 

The Prime Minister has been adamant that protecting the residents of Spain from external contagion has been, and remains, top priority, and there had certainly been very strong hints recently that the opening of borders would be gradual and controlled, only permitting residents of nations in a similar epidemiological situation to enter.

 

Certainly the tourism minister had sewn considerable doubt about the possibility of UK tourists being allowed to come to Spain this summer given the high level of cases still being reported in the UK.

 

Last week the Ministry of Health raised the point several times that opening borders would result in a resurgence of cases and expressed its opposition to a premature lifting of restrictions. "Spain will not open its borders until 1st July and then, only with absolute security" the Minister said on Friday in a press conference.

 

Although initially the Spanish government said that travellers from the UK would not have to quarantine from Sunday, Spain's foreign affairs minister said yesterday that the country may impose a two-week quarantine on British citizens due to the fact that the UK is maintaining its own 2 week quarantine for those returning from abroad.

 

The UK Foreign Office is also still warning against all but essential international travel and this message is still specifically repeated on its page for Spain.

 

Spain's foreign affairs minister Arancha González Laya, indicated that Spain may impose a reciprocal quarantine on British visitors entering Spain, saying in an interview with the BBC: "We will be checking what the UK will be doing and we will be in dialogue with the UK to see whether or not we should be introducing reciprocity as they have different measures than the rest of the EU."

 

She said that the situation was "fluid" and that officials would like to "properly engage in a dialogue with the UK authorities to make sure that we both take the message that best corresponds to the health situation, which today is a little bit better in Spain than it is in the UK".

 

Downing Street justifies its own imposition of the 14 day quarantine which began on June 8th by saying, “Now that we have passed the peak of this virus, we have to take measures to ensure that imported cases do not cause a resurgence of this fatal virus. And as the number of cases diminishes and the number of visitors arriving in our country increase, we have to recognise that imported cases could represent a significant threat.”

 

More than 41,000 people have died in the UK from Covid-19 and 27,000 in Spain, the two countries the worst affected in Europe.

 

So far from being resolved yesterday as we had all believed, the confusion continues.