Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told UNWTO that “mass vaccinations will open the way to the normality” paving the way for a return for tourism and that they offer a “horizon of hope” for tourists to return as soon as possible.
Spain intends to fully re-open its doors to overseas tourists once most of its population has been vaccinated – and they are aiming to do this as early as this the end of this spring or early summer.
The popular tourist destination hopes that 70% of the population will have received their vaccinations ‘by the end of the summer’ and has reiterated that all efforts are being made to receive international tourists as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the UNWTO: “The Government is working hard to vaccinate people at the highest possible rate, and in fact Spain is the ninth ranked country in the world in vaccinations so far, and one of the top in Europe.”
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto has echoed the Prime Minister’s comments, reiterating that the Spanish Government is working intensely to receive international tourists as soon as possible.
Efforts are being focused on controlling the pandemic, speeding up the vaccination process and guaranteeing the safety of tourists.
Reyes Maroto said that the availability of vaccines and the beginning of vaccination programmes in many countries offers a horizon of hope of immunising the majority of the population so that they are in a position to travel safely.
“Our priority in 2021 is to reactivate tourism and resume safe mobility on a global scale as soon as possible. We are working to adopt a common framework of a series of planned actions to give confidence to tourists. We hope that at the end of spring and especially during the summer, international travel will resume and travellers will choose Spain as their destination.”
The minister also emphasised that the image of Spain as a tourist destination has not been harmed by the pandemic and there continues to be a demand from tourists to travel to Spain once more.
