Skift Take
Tourist has actually been really advantageous to parts of Spain over the last years. However as it’s moved into the # 1 slot a few of its most-visited cities have ended up being poster kids for overtourism. Will it utilize this opportunity to reassess how it plans for a brand-new age of worldwide tourist?
Nathan Allen, Reuters
Spain expects foreign tourist arrivals to reach as many as 45 million this year, over half the pre-pandemic level, its tourism minister said on Wednesday, welcoming potential visitors to begin preparing their Spanish trips.
“Spain will be ready to reopen to the world soon,” Reyes Maroto informed press reporters at a discussion of Spain’s marketing project to lure visitors back this summertime.
“International tourists can start preparing their Spanish trips now.”
Foreign tourism to Spain– the world’s second most visited nation prior to the COVID-19 pandemic– plunged 80% in 2015 from 83.5 million visitors in 2019 as pandemic constraints brought leisure travel to a virtual dead stop.
With vaccination rates increasing across the world, tourism-dependent nations like Spain are wanting to salvage at least a few of the economically crucial summertime season and are rushing to specify guidelines for safe travel.
The federal government had previously stated it anticipated tourism to reach half its pre-pandemic levels this year.
Maroto said Spain would introduce a colour-based classification for tourist gos to, designating countries with low infection rates a green ranking, while those with a higher risk would be categorized as orange or red.
A European Union-wide vaccine passport scheme set to enter force in June would just be required for visitors from higher-risk nations, Maroto said.
On Tuesday she announced that Spain hoped to lift a requirement for British visitors to present an unfavorable PCR test from May 20.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Belén Carreño; composing by Nathan Allen; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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