How Covid-19 has affected tourism to Spain from the UK

Tourism in Europe has of course taken something of a massive hit in recent months, and the UK and Spain are certainly no exception to that. In better news though, the Spanish government has made several statements regarding foreign visitors, one of which saying that foreign visitors to the country would no longer be subject to a two-week-long quarantine after July 1st.

Ms Reyes Maroto (The Acting Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism for Spain) has said that the tourist industry would need to be started up “gradually” and that "For Spain, it is very important that the first tourists are tourists who are in the same epidemiological situation as us, and that they are able to fly safely,".

Ms Maroto also stated there had been conversations with tour operators. So as long as something catastrophic does not happen then we could start to see things returning to relative norms. There is however a certain niggling announcement from the UK government to take into consideration.

The UK Quarantine has now ended

The UK is about to end it's quarantine,  Anybody coming back to the UK from most foreign destinations (it is still not clear if this includes Spain) will not have to self-isolate for two weeks.

Right now, flights are available but prices have soared from the UK to Alicante. £200+ we found in our research. 

Spanish hotel ‘clean’ measures

Many hotels in Spain, including some in Alicante, are being issued with ‘coronavirus free’ certificates, as well as them taking measures to enable safe accommodation. These measures include screens being installed between tables in restaurants, which will also have staggered opening times.

Rooms service staff are now equipped with gloves and mask and the rooms themselves have been made ‘wipe-down friendly’ – meaning that extra bedding, decorations and coffee makers having been removed.

These steps are certainly encouraging and may even form a basis of an agreement similar to the one between the UK and France.

Spain usually attracts around 80 million people a year in the form of tourists, and the tourism sector itself responsible for over 12% of the nation’s GDP.

Hopefully it won’t be long before everything is back to normal, more or less, although that will almost entirely depend on people following the rules – especially if the enforced UK quarantine does not put people off from travelling to the country for their holiday’s. Failing that, a no-quarantine joint agreement is going to be very important – if such an agreement can be reached.