Date Published: 19/07/2021
ARCHIVED - Spanish tourism prepares to welcome back the British as England lifts travel restrictions
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Visitors from the UK spent an average of 49 million euros a day in Spain during 2019
With the further lifting of pandemic restrictions in England on 19th July (or “Freedom Day” as some have dubbed it in the British press) many of those in the Spanish tourism sector are keeping their fingers crossed as they anticipate a huge influx of visitors from the British Isles.
It is reported that since the lifting of restrictions was announced by Boris Johnson’s government there has been a four-fold increase in the number of flights booked from the UK to Spain, as sunseekers welcome the news that they will no longer be required to quarantine for ten days when they return from countries on the “amber list” of travel destinations – a category which includes the whole of Spain following the dropping of the Balearics from the “green list” last week. While travellers who have been vaccinated against Covid are still required to undergo Covid tests before leaving home and on their return, the lack of quarantine will remove what has been the main deterrent to holidaymakers.
However, the recent changes in UK government policy are still causing a certain amount of uncertainty over what the future might hold, especially since the announcement last Friday of a requirement for those returning home from France to isolate for ten days. With Mr Johnson himself also now self-isolating, it seems certain that there will continue to be doubts over whether his government can maintain its policy of lifting almost all restrictions.
There is also uncertainty about the surge in new infections across Spain; by Friday 16th July, the 14-day accumulated incidence rate of Covid-19 had risen to 537 cases per 100,000 inhabitants following a rise of 70 per cent from 316 in the previous four days. The rate is now over double the “extreme risk” threshold of 250 and the number of Covid patients receiving hospital treatment has risen to over 5,000, accounting for 4.2 per cent of all occupied beds.
Restrictions are being re-introduced in several autonomous regions and calls are growing for the government to take some action to stem the increase in cases.
Added to all this is the fear that the British government may reverse its policy regarding travel to other "amber" countries and re-impose restrictions on Spanish travel as occurred last week in France.
The importance of British tourists to the Spanish economy
In the meantime, though, the return of the British will come as a relief to the tourist industry in the Costas. For many years the UK has been the single most important source of foreign visitors to this country, and in 2019 it provided over 18 million of the 83.7 million tourists coming to Spain.
More importantly in economic terms, those British visitors spent almost 18 billion euros while in this country at an average of 49 million euros per day, representing approximately 20 per cent of all economic activity within the international tourism sector.
For this reason the sector welcomes the news that low-cost airlines are now increasing the frequency of their flights along with others operating routes to and from Germany, and it is expected that those who have been unable to travel until now will jump at the chance to escape to the Mediterranean coast. In pre-pandemic years arrivals from the UK accounted for around 30 per cent of those touching down at Málaga airport, and as those flights and those from Germany start up again it is anticipated that hotels in the Costa del Sol could reach occupancy rates of over 60 per cent this summer.