Tourism won’t fully recover on Spain’s Costa del Sol until 2022 following UK quarantine, says report

THE UK quarantine on travellers returning from Spain will negatively affect the Costa del Sol until 2022, experts have predicted. 

According to Turespaña, the loss of British travellers will be heavily felt in Malaga, where they account for 30% of arriving passengers and take up 25% of accommodations. 

In a new report, the government-backed body said the UK’s quarantine will see tourism numbers plummet this summer, winter and will even affect summer 2021. 

“There have been numerous cancellations and a fall in reservations,” the group said, “both for this summer season, the winter seasons 2020/2021 and summer 2021.”

Professionals in the industry believe the sting could last even longer as holidaymakers opt for other destinations where they get ‘retained’ and continue to return to instead of Spain. 

Indeed the report details how Greece and Turkey have seen a spike in bookings following the string of cancellations in Spain. 

In its conclusions, it says the industry-wide consensus is that ‘the sector will not start a significant recovery until spring 2021, not reaching 2019 levels before 2022 or 2023.’

The UK’s shock announcement of the quarantine last month has also been blamed for several other countries following suit. 

Most recently Switzerland, Norway and the Czech Republic all imposed their own quarantines from people arriving from Spain.