Spain expects to welcome non-EU tourists beginning May 20

Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Travelers from outside the EU will be allowed to visit Spain for non-essential reasons, including vacations from May 20, Spain’s tourism minister said Tuesday.

Reyes Maroto said the “revision” of the European Union Article 912, which blocked non-essential travelers from outside the EU for nearly a year, is “advancing quickly.”

It could be a boon to Spain’s ailing tourism sector as it would allow people from the UK, US, Turkey or elsewhere to come to Spain for holidays this summer.

Maroto focused her speech on the UK, which was the source market for nearly a quarter of Spain’s tourists in 2019.

She said that since the UK has a low number of infections, British tourists, vaccinated or not, will likely not even have to provide a negative coronavirus test to enter Spain.

On the other hand, Spain did not make it onto the UK’s coveted green list of travel destinations because of its high infection rate.

Spain is moving headfirst into the summer tourism season with lifted restrictions and optimism.

“The state of emergency is a thing of the past. We have to look to the future and that’s vaccines, vaccines, vaccines,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Tuesday.

Some of the country’s regional governments are concerned about future outbreaks, as many courts are striking down attempts to enforce restrictions like curfews now that the state of emergency has expired.

Spain registered just under 5,000 new infections Tuesday and 205 additional deaths.

It has vaccinated nearly 30% of its adult population with at least one jab.