Tourists to be welcomed to Spain ‘as soon as possible’

Spain’s lockdown is expected to lift in June

Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, has said tourists will be welcomed to the country ‘as soon as possible’, but only when it is safe to do so.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Laya added: “We are hoping to get tourists back as soon as possible but we are also conscious that, when we welcome them, we want to provide the safest destination in Europe.

“We want to make sure when they come they can continue to experience the amazing stay in Spain, whether they love sports or culture or cuisine or simply like our weather.

“But we want to make sure that at this moment, when every country is suffering from this pandemic, we can provide them with a safe and healthy experience – that’s top of our priorities right now.”

Laya said cities like Madrid and Barcelona, with higher concentrations of COVID-19, will remain under stricter rules than more rural areas, but that the country will reopen to visitors at the earliest possible opportunity.

While the minister couldn’t confirm whether a Spanish break this summer would be possible, she continued: “We’ve had one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe, but hope to end lockdown by the end of June.

“We are putting health first, making sure when we open the country first to Spaniards and then to tourists, everybody will be safe.”

Spain, like the UK, was among the European countries worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak, and introduced lockdown measures on March 14, more than a week ahead of the UK.

It has now begun lifting those restrictions in various regions, with plans to end lockdown next month.

The best beaches in Europe - in pictures

1/30

Laya added that she hopes the two-week quarantines imposed on travellers coming into the country would be relaxed in favour of less restrictive measures in time to welcome tourists.

Foreign travel has been severely affected by international restrictions, with airline companies grounding planes and making drastic cuts to their routes.

Ryanair, one of the main carriers to Spain from the UK, last week said it planned to restore 40 per cent of its whole flight programme from July , although Health Secretary Matt Hancock also warned that foreign holidays for UK residents are unlikely this summer.

There have been signs of optimism from Europe, however, with countries including Italy and Greece signalling their intention to welcome UK travellers early next month .

Additional reporting by PA

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in