“Spain is a safe destination,” said Health Minister Carolina Dariasa, adding that Spain is in the process of regaining its global leadership in tourism.
Europeans who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 can currently enter Spain with a negative Covid-19 test in the last 72 hours by taking a swab from their nose and throat. From Monday, they will also be able to choose the cheapest antigen test instead of this test.
However, Britain, which is a huge tourism market for Spain, has not yet removed Spain from its list of countries to which it is risky to go. This means that British tourists must be quarantined on their return from Spain, as well as expensive Covid-19 tests.
Britain gave Spain the largest number of tourists before the pandemic. In 2019, more than one in five of the 83.5 million people who visited Spain were from Britain.
Nevertheless, those working in the tourism sector in Spain expect an influx of visitors in the summer.
Across the country, after months of downtime, hotels and restaurants are reopening their doors, but airlines have resumed flights on routes that have been abandoned for months.
Malaga Airport is expected to land 20 planes on Monday. They will arrive from all over Europe, including London, Berlin and Frankfurt.
From Monday, cruise ships will be allowed to call at Spanish ports again.
Spain, which is heavily dependent on the tourism sector, was one of the Western economies hardest hit by the pandemic. In 2020, its GDP decreased by 10.8%.
The Spanish government has set a target of attracting 45 million tourists by the end of the year. However, by the end of April, only 1.8 million tourists had visited Spain, according to official statistics.
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