Spain’s Tourism Minister has said that tourists who have not been vaccinated against Covid will soon be allowed to enter the country. Until now, the popular holiday destination required a vaccination certificate.
This means that unvaccinated tourists have been unable to travel to Spain, even though most countries where Covid restrictions have been eased. Face masks are no longer needed in most places, for example.
This week Spain extended its Covid entry rules, which were due to end this week, until June 15. This meant that people traveling to the country had to either show proof that they were fully vaccinated at least 14 days before their arrival or show that they had recovered from having had Covid in the last six months.
However, on Thursday Spain’s Tourism Minister Maria Reyes Maroto inferred a change was now imminent.
the Evening Standard quoted her as saying in a radio interview: “It will only be a few days before we remove a restriction which could discourage tourists from outside the European Union from visiting us. We will stop requiring the Covid certificate and allow people to enter with a negative Covid test.
She then confirmed that a negative test would be the only entry requirement. She added: “The world considers us a safe destination and 92% of the Spanish population is vaccinated. Tourism is recovering here at rates that would have been hard to imagine in January.
“Today, this recovery is a reality. Tourism is the lever of economic growth this year.”