Covid-19: Spain reopens its beaches to vaccinated tourists

Vamos a la playa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!

Spain reopens its doors and its beaches wide on Monday to vaccinated tourists in the hope of reviving a key sector of its economy, devastated by the pandemic.

Since Monday morning, the Spanish borders open to all vaccinated people from all over the world.

Unvaccinated Europeans, who already had the right to come for tourism but had to present a negative PCR of less than 72 hours, will now be able to be satisfied with an antigen test, much cheaper.

Cruise ships can also dock again in Iberian ports.

The stakes are colossal: tourism accounts for nearly 13% of Spain's GDP, 2.5 million jobs depend on it, the country being the second largest tourist destination in the world (after France). Spain welcomed 83.5 million visitors in 2019, before the pandemic. In 2020, that record fell by 77%. From January to the end of April, the country has only received 1.8 million foreign tourists.

For professionals in the sector, this day should mark the great return of foreign tourists. José Luis Prieto, president of the Union of Travel Agencies (Unav), thus begins to believe in a "spectacular recovery" today. He told AFP that tour operators had noted "a great demand for information in the past three weeks in Great Britain, France or Germany, the top three markets" for the Spanish tourism sector. Malaga airport, the most important in the whole of Andalusia (south), will see no less than twenty international flights land for the morning of Monday alone, from among others Berlin, Lille, Frankfurt, Dublin or London. . And as an encouraging sign,the four flights approaching Malaga between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. are already a few minutes early, as can be seen from the arrivals board.

Spain still considered a country at risk by the United Kingdom

But if the will is there, tourists could be late.

The country is still considered at risk by the United Kingdom which imposes a quarantine of at least five days on return to its nationals, and several paid tests.

But the English are the first to come to Spain (18 million) and the biggest spenders.

“Spain is a safe destination,” insisted Health Minister Carolina Darias. Efforts had already been made to address them: since May 24, Spain no longer asked the British to precede their arrival with a PCR test. Spanish Tourism Minister Maria Reyes Maroto explained on Friday “not understanding the decision” of the United Kingdom not to have agreed to put in its “green list” certain Spanish tourist regions such as the Balearic Islands or the Canaries where the rate of incidence is lower. On the strength of the very low incidence rates, the Spanish government has authorized these regions to reopen their nightclubs until 3 a.m.

London will only reconsider its decision in three weeks, precious wasted weeks that could call into question the Spanish government's goal of attracting 45 million visitors this year.

In this context of "uncertainty", the tour operator TUI, world number one in tourism, has canceled all its flights to Spain until June 13.

Also late, the cruise line MSC Cruises announced that one of its ships would leave Barcelona on June 26 and the port of Valencia will for its part receive a first boat from TUI Cruises on the 27.