Charlie Smith
BRITS will be allowed to holiday in Spain in a week’s time, the Spanish Government has said.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that Spain would open its borders with all EU and Schengen-area countries on June 21.
The announcement came yesterday in his weekly meeting with the country’s regional chiefs.
From midnight on June 20, when Spain’s state of alarm ends, foreign visitors will no longer have to self-isolate for 14 days, Sanchez also said.
The UK will still be considered part of the EU under the announcement, a Government spokesperson told The Telegraph.
Although the UK left the EU at the end of January, the Brexit transition period remains until the end of 2020.
The source added that ‘this does not mean that there may not be another change if the epidemiological situation in Britain requires this’.
Brits are Spain’s largest group of foreign visitors, contributing a sizeable chunk of the 12.3% of GDP that comes from tourism.
Spain’s borders have been closed since the country announced its state of alarm on March 14 in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Portugal is the only exception to the announcement and will not see its border with Spain open until July 1.
Spain’s neighbour had been set to see borders open on June 22 but the Portuguese Government has requested a delay.
Meanwhile the announcement means Spain’s borders will open 10 days earlier than expected, after the EU had recommended a date of July 1.
The new announcement also means that from July 21 inter-regional travel will be permitted throughout Spain.
Andalucia and other autonomous communities had recommended that travel to the rest of Spain be delayed.
The COVID-19 lockdown imposed by Spain was among the most draconian in the world, and many Spaniards still aren’t able to leave their own province.
Sanchez also used his platform on Sunday to warn about the coronavirus outbreaks in the US and Russia.
He also unveiled a €3.75 billion injection of aid for Spain’s ailing automobile sector, which makes up about 8% of Spanish GDP.
In other developments, the first of some 10,000 Germans are set to arrive in the Balearic Islands today for a ‘tourism experiment’.
The Government’s ‘pilot tourism scheme’ has been assembled to see how the Balearics are able to handle visitors ‘post-covid’.
Germans, who make up a huge market in the region, will receive temperature checks on landing and be subject to other sanitary measures.
They will take holidays of between five and 14 days in Formentera, Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca.
