British holidaymakers hoping to visit Spain sooner rather than later this summer were disappointed by news from Spain’s Minister for Tourism that the UK will be expected to improve its Covid-19 infection figures before they will be allowed to visit.
Spain is expecting to open its borders to welcome international tourists from July 1st without new arrivals being expected to quarantine when they get here.
However, Spain wants Britain to improve its figures before allowing tourists to visit freely. The UK death toll rose by 215 on Saturday, compared to four deaths in Spain on the same day.
“For us it is important to guarantee that people arrive healthy and leave healthy,” Minister for Tourism Maria Reyes Maroto told the media at the weekend.
The Minister confirmed that Germany and northern European countries such as Norway and Denmark are likely to be the first to be welcomed back to Spain once the country opens its borders to holidaymakers. “At this moment, their epidemiological situations are very good,” she said.
Maria Reyes Maroto told the media that regional government representatives had spoken with the likes of Jet2holidays and TUI with a view to the government approving some pilot schemes for tourists returning in July.
Meanwhile, the Balearic Islands regional government has been lobbying central government for the right to organise a test run with foreign tourists from June 16th. Officials there want central government to approve a project which would see the arrival of 3000 tourists from Germany – mainly staying on the island of Mallorca but some also allowed to travel to Ibiza and Menorca.
The news comes after Greece took a u-turn on allowing access to Britons this summer. On Friday, the Greek Ministry of Tourism announced that from June 15th it will be allowing people to enter Greece on direct flights in to Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki. It published a list of countries eligible for entry, based on Covid-19 infection figures, but it did not include the UK.
However, on Monday, Greece’s Minister for Tourism Harry Theoharis clarified the country’s new entry laws, confirming that Britons will be permitted to arrive from June 15 but will be subject to stricter requirements than certain other nations.
Greek officials confirmed that the country will accept arrivals from airports deemed high-risk by the European Union’s aviation safety agency (EASA), which includes British airports, but that these passengers will be subject to testing and possible quarantine.
Theoharis told news agencies, “Tourists originating from airports listed on EASA are obliged to be tested once they land in Greece and remain at a designated hotel for one day. If the test turns out negative, these visitors will then be obliged to observe a 7-day quarantine. If their sample is positive, they will remain in a 14-day quarantine and their health will be monitored.”
The 29 countries currently deemed safe include: Albania, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, and Switzerland. Greek authorities will conduct random sample testing on passengers arriving from these airports on the approved list.