Spain pins expectations on vaccine passports to revive summer tourism
17 February, 2021
Spain expectations introducing vaccination passports and pre-travel Covid-19 tests allows British tourists to come back for holidays come early july, a good tourism ministry official said on Tuesday.
"We support the vaccination certificate but not as the only method to extract mobility; rather, among the means within a portfolio of steps including interpersonal distancing, pre-travel lab tests, mask-wearing," the source told Reuters.
The government does not have any plans to introduce quarantines on foreign visitors, and was relying on a wider agreement between Europe and Britain to remove restrictions on non-essential travel, the official said.
Over 2020, as global travel was drastically curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic, travelers to Spain, among the world's virtually all visited countries, fell 80 per cent to 19 million, an even not seen since 1969.
The industry's contribution to gross domestic product tumbled to between 4 and 5 per cent, according to estimates from Funcas think tank analyst Maria Jesus Fernandez, from a 12 per cent share in 2019.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com