Coronavirus: Spain opening borders to all vaccinated travellers
- Spain reopens to international tourism, letting in travellers who have received full vaccine course
- Health minister calls Spain, once a European Covid-19 hotspot, a ‘safe destination’
Spain opens its borders to vaccinated travellers from all over the world, hoping an influx of visitors will revitalise its all-important tourism sector which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Spain is a safe destination,” Health Minister Carolina Darias insisted, adding that the country was “in the process of reclaiming its global leadership in tourism”.
Non-vaccinated Europeans – who can currently enter Spain with a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours – will from Monday be able to take a cheaper antigen test instead.
But in a setback, the United Kingdom, a huge tourism market for the country, has not yet removed Spain from its list of at-risk countries, meaning British travellers will have to quarantine on their return home as well as pay for expensive Covid-19 tests.
The British normally make up the largest contingent of tourists to Spain – in 2019 over one-fifth of Spain’s 83.5 million arrivals were from the United Kingdom.
Regardless, those in the tourism sector are still hoping for a summer surge of visitors.