Spain’s government has unfolded its plans to create a “green corridor” for all citizens of the United Kingdom who have been vaccinated against the Coronavirus if the European Union fails to reach an agreement on vaccination documents.
Spain’s Tourism Minister Fernando Valdés has confirmed that the country is seeking to reach a mutual agreement with Britain in a bid to facilitate the travel process for the summer season.
Valdés stressed that he hopes its country would find an agreement with the European Union to start reopening its doors for tourists as soon as possible.
“For us, the British market is our main market. But obviously, since we are a member of the European Union, the solutions have first to be part of the discussions in the EU,” he pointed out, emphasizing that if such a deal could not be reached, the country’s government will start to find other solutions, such as green corridors with third countries in order to revive the country’s tourism sector.
The tourism minister also stressed that the reopening of the country to the United Kingdom’s tourists depends on the evolving vaccination programs; however, he highlighted that Spain might start to regain British tourists during this summer.
In this regard, the United Kingdom’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, said that British authorities are working on the need for a document in terms of “having had a vaccine to be able to travel to another country”.
Hancock said that if other countries urge the citizens to take a recognized vaccine to travel there, Britain is seeking to enable its citizens to be eligible to take that journey.
The United Kingdom’s health secretary added that the UK’s government is continuously working with international partners, including the EU and other countries around the world, and according to him, “it’s obviously important to work.”
Last April, an European Union official confirmed for SchengenVisaInfo.com that the testing process would be the first requirement for persons who wish to travel to the Schengen Area, highlighting that once recognized vaccines start to rollout, they would become mandatory for all passengers.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism in Spain, Reyes Maroto, has also called on the European Commission to accelerate the launching of such documents in order to help the countries gradually get back to the pre-pandemic situation.
In January, Spain’s government announced that it supports some European countries’ initiative to impose vaccination certificates to make the travel process easier for persons who have been vaccinated against the Coronavirus disease.
President of the Tourism Board Juan Molas previously stressed that among the key points that would help Spain’s tourism industry recover from COVID-19 hard hit would be talent, personalization and digitalization.
Last year, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated that Spain’ tourism industry could lose over 40 billion during the summer due to the COVID-19 situation, despite govt’s attempt to support businesses in this sector by allocating 14,445.4 million financial support to 111,080 companies in the tourism, culture and leisure sector, in August 2020.
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