Spain has announced it will re-open to foreign tourists from July and pledged visitors and the sector’s workforce will be kept safe.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told tourist resorts in the country to start preparing for the summer as the government announces foreign tourists will be able to return from July.
Sánchez confirmed that as part of the planning for Spain’s phased reopening known as the ‘Plan de Desescalada’, the government has worked with the tourism sector to prepare measures, coordinated by Ministry of Industry, Business and Tourism in collaboration with Spain’s autonomous communities.
The announcement comes as Spain emerges from its lockdown which was implemented on March 14 and was one of the most stringent in Europe.
From July, tourists will be allowed entry “in safe conditions” according to the Spanish PM, who confirmed ‘there will be a tourist season this summer’.
In expat newspaper The Olive Press, Sanchez is resported as saying: “We will guarantee the reactivation of national tourism this summer. ….foreign tourists can plan their holidays in our country.”
As well as encouraging hotels and resorts to start preparing for the summer, he said many Spaniards would be able to travel domestically from the end of June.
Only areas of the country which have completed ‘phase 3’ of a coronavirus de-escalation plan will be able to open up to tourists, but some hope to have reached this by June 22 and will have special ‘corridors’ with other areas in the same position.
In the future the Prime Minister announced that Spanish tourism will have two new hallmarks covering health and safety and environmental sustainability.
Sánchez concluded his message by reiterating that Spain awaits visitors from July and those that come, can “rest in the knowledge that it will be a safe destination that is also committed to environmental sustainability”.
