Spain to welcome back British holidaymakers from June

Spain’s tourism minister has said the country will be welcoming tourists back this summer, including travellers from the UK.

The European Union has plans to use coronavirus vaccine certificates to let holidaymakers back in, with Spain saying it is currently trialling a digital certificate scheme – their plan is to see a wider roll out in June.

Under the EU scheme, Digital Green Certificates will be accepted as ‘proof’ that someone has either had the Covid-19 vaccine, received a negative test result, or recovered from coronavirus.

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Spain’s Tourism minister Fernando Valdes Verelst told a travel and tourism conference in Mexico: “I think the best thing that governments right now can provide to travellers is certainty, give the proper information and the security that they can travel and they can come back to the countries.

“In those terms, in the European Union, we put in place a system … that provides us with a digital certificate.

“Spain is going to be ready in June to use this digital certificate. We are doing a pilot programme in May, in all our 46 airports.

“We are going to give all these travellers that certainty. Spain is going to be ready in June to tell all travellers worldwide that you can visit us.”

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In regards to international travel from the UK returning in May, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the data ‘continues to look good’.

He told Sky News: “The earliest possible unlock is May 17th, so stage three of the unlock, we won’t have international travel before that.

“I have to say that so far the data does continue to look good from a UK perspective, notwithstanding those concerns about where people might be travelling to and making sure we’re protected from the disease being reimported.

“I will set out towards the beginning of May … which countries fall into the various different categories.”

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However, when it came to travel to Spain specifically Shapps wouldn’t commit to an answer as to whether British tourists will be able to travel there this summer, saying the public will have to ‘wait and see’.

He told Times Radio: “Spain specifically, I’m afraid I just don’t have the answer to that because the Joint Biosecurity Centre will need to come up with their assessment and we can’t do that until a bit nearer the time.

“So we will need to wait and see.”