Spain betting on vaccine passports to revive summer tourism

Spain hopes the introduction of vaccination passports combined with pre-travel COVID-19 testing will allow British tourists to return to Spanish destinations this summer, a tourism ministry source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Spain hopes the introduction of vaccination passports combined with pre-travel COVID-19 testing will allow British tourists to return to Spanish destinations this summer, a tourism ministry source told Reuters on Tuesday. "We support the vaccination certificate but not as the only way to recuperate mobility, rather, as one of the means within a portfolio of measures including social distancing, pre-travel tests, mask-wearing," the source said.

The government has no plans to introduce quarantines on foreign visitors, and was also counting on a wider agreement to be hammered out between Europe and Britain to remove restrictions on non-essential travel, the official added. Over 2020, as global travel was dramatically curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic, foreign tourism to Spain - one of the world's most visited countries - fell 80% to just 19 million visitors, a level not seen since 1969.

The industry's contribution to gross domestic product tumbled to between 4% and 5%, according to estimates from Funcas think-tank analyst Maria Jesus Fernandez, from a 12% share in 2019.