Spain throws cold water on summer holiday trips as it seeks to vaccinate 70 per cent of population

Spain will be “more ready” to welcome holidaymakers once 70 per cent of the country are vaccinated at the end of the summer, the PM has said, casting doubt on travel plans this year.

Pime Minister Pedro Sánchez echoed other government ministers in saying that this threshold would probably not be reached until the end of August.

“The government is working to vaccinate at the highest possible rate […] to reach the end of the summer with 70 per cent, which will leave Spain progressively more ready to receive international tourists”, Mr Sánchez said at a World Tourism Organization event in Madrid this week.

“The tourism recovery begins with vaccination. And full recovery, with full vaccination,” the Spanish leader stated, leaving the door open for some easing of restrictions before the 70 per cent safety level is reached.

But Spain’s tourism and industry minister, Reyes Maroto, stepped in on Friday to reassure the sector that plans were afoot to save at least part of the summer season.

“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,” Ms Maroto said.

Mr Sánchez said Spain’s Covid vaccination campaign was going well and was “one of the best in Europe”, but a considerable acceleration will be required to protect 70 per cent of the population in time to restart the country’s stalled tourism sector this year.

After nearly four weeks since the start of the vaccination campaign, Spain has delivered 1.1 million jabs, equalling just over two per cent of the population, with very few having had their second injection.

Before the Covid pandemic, tourism represented 12 per cent of the Spanish economy, with close to 84 million international arrivals in 2019.

Spain is one of several European Union countries supporting the introduction of a system of Covid vaccine passports to allow people who have been inoculated to travel.

“This would be a shared and reliable framework to help avoid indiscriminate measures such as quarantines and travel bans,” Ms Maroto said.

It came as Belgium’s consultation committee banned non-essential travel to and from the country from January 27 to March 1 on Friday.

Alexander De Croo, the prime minister, had said he wanted to impose the ban at Thursday’s video summit of EU leaders.

Belgian media reported his mind was made up after 160,000 travelled abroad for the Christmas holidays despite warnings not to do so.

All travellers from the UK, South Africa and South America will have to go into quarantine for 10 days and be tested on the first and seventh day.

Non-residents will have to be tested on departure and arrival

“Let this be clear: we are not building a wall around our country,” said Mr De Croo. “Coming and going is still possible, but there will have to be a good reason.”

Meanwhile France is to make PCR tests compulsory for all travellers into the country, including from fellow EU countries, starting Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron's office confirmed yesterday/FRI

The rule, which is already in place for people travelling between the UK and France, applies to all but cross-border workers and land transportation.

The new restrictions come as a top French epidemiologist and government adviser warned that the country will have to resort to a strict lockdown like those in Ireland and Britain if it fails to rein in the more contagious variants of the coronavirus.