Spain’s tourism minister Reyes Maroto has rolled back comments made by the prime minister that ‘international tourism was unlikely to fully return until the end of summer, declaring that she expects the country to welcome tourists starting in late spring.
Prime Minster Pedro Sanchez’ comments at a meeting of the Executive Council of the Word Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) prompted a flurry of nervous calls to travel agents by customers. He said, “our internal plan is to promote a strategy that includes vaccination of the Spanish population at the highest possible rate,” adding, “And we are going to advance with the vaccination at the highest rate until reaching 70 per cent of the population with immunity by the end of the summer.”
“Only mass vaccinations will open the way to the normality that we want,” he said – which triggered the concerns that Spain wouldn’t open to international tourists before then. Spain is by far the most popular international destination for Irish holidaymakers, with over a million tourists a year arriving from these shores.
“We hope that at the end of spring and especially during the summer, international travel will resume and travellers will choose Spain as their destination.”
