Spain 'Desperate’ To Welcome UK Visitors This Summer
Spain News
Published: 22 April 2021 15:44 CET
Spain’s Tourism Minister Fernando Valdés announced today that Spain is “desperate to welcome back millions of British holidaymakers”.
Speaking to Sky News, Valdés said “We are desperate to welcome you this summer. We've been having constant conversations with UK authorities.
“I think we will be ready here in Spain and we also think that things on the vaccination scheme of the UK are going pretty well.
“So, hopefully, we will be seeing this summer the restart of holidays.”
He emphasised that Spain would be ready and that he hopes an agreement can be reached with the UK in June, to allow tourists to holiday later in the summer.
He continued by saying “I believe vaccine certificates is going to help us.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been trying to put in place different means to help safe tourism.
“Now I think we are ready because vaccinations have changed a huge deal from what we had last summer.”
He continued to explain that “constant conversations” are taking place between London and Madrid regarding the reopening of tourism.
European countries are preparing to re-open their borders to travellers from next month, and it has been reported today that vaccinated Brits will be able to holiday in Spain, Portugal and Greece.
The EU has a plan that is apparently known as ‘get together’, which is hoping to let tourists who have been vaccinated move between countries while avoiding the need to be tested or quarantined.
With the UK being the world leaders, with their vaccination roll out of 43,915,559 (10,775,817 of those being second doses), it is believed that it will be the first to be allowed to travel by using the ‘vaccine passport scheme’. A June start date is currently being discussed.
The UK’s Government is also discussing how it can relax travel restrictions, allowing foreign travel from late spring, early summer.
It is believed that the Government will announce, within the next few weeks, which countries will be placed in the ‘red’, ‘amber’ and ‘green’ categories within the new ‘traffic light system’, that is connected to Covid risks and the degree of quarantine and testing that will be needed.
The new system will see countries colour-coded in regards to the rate of infection, the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated, the prevalence of variants of concern and its access to reliable scientific data and genomic sequencing.
Green Countries: Arrivals will be required to take a pre-departure test as well as a PCR test on or before day 2 of their arrival back into England - but will not need to quarantine on return (unless a positive test result is given).
Amber Countries: Arrivals will be required to quarantine for a period of ten days and take a pre-departure test, plus a PCR test on day 2 and day 8 with the option for Test to Release on day 5 to end self-isolation early.
Red Countries: Arrivals will be subject to restrictions that are currently in place for ‘red list’ countries. These include a ten-day stay in a managed quarantine hotel, pre-departure testing and PCR testing on day 2 and 8.
The Spanish Tourism Minister did stress that almost 10 million people in Spain have had at least their first Covid-19 vaccination, meaning that restrictions under a “state of alarm” are due to be lifted from May 9.
Sources
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/spain-summer-holiday-2021-tourism-minister-greece-portugal-covid-b931075.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9497825/Spain-Portugal-Greece-make-plans-throw-open-borders-vaccinated-Britons-weeks.html
