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Sun, sand and social distancing: What lies ahead for tourism in Spain

With social distancing on the sand, restaurants restructured to restrict crowding and temperature-taking at the door in hotels, Spain is looking for creative ways to lure back tourists in the post-pandemic era.

Published: 30 April 2020 13:48 CEST
Sun, sand and social distancing: What lies ahead for tourism in Spain
A father and son wearing masks stroll along a beach in Mallorca. Photo: AFP

As the world's second-most visited country, Spain usually moves into high gear in the run-up to Easter, but this year, all bets were off with the coronavirus epidemic dealing a devastating blow to the tourism industry which is now seeking ways to salvage the summer.   

“We want to be at the forefront of those destinations offering reassurance to our clients by being the safest and the most hygienic,” said Daniel Barbero, the local official in charge of tourism in Almunecar, a seaside town some 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Malaga in southern Spain.   

Although Spain is the second-most popular tourist destination in the world, it has been badly hit by the epidemic with the number of deaths in the country standing at more than 24,000.

But with the epidemic in Spain peaking earlier this month, the government has laid out plans for a staged transition out of the lockdown, with the gradual opening of bars, hotels and restaurants to begin on May 11th.

READ MORE: 

And the stakes are high in a country where the tourism sector accounts for 12 percent of gross domestic product and 13 percent of employment, but which looks set to lose up to 60 percent of its annual income as a result of the lockdown, the Exceltur tourism association has warned.

Incensed by the vagueness of the government's plans to roll back the restrictions, industry professionals have made a string of proposals aimed at drawing back the tourists.

And Almuñecar is hoping to pilot some of these proposals, with its highly-popular diving clubs working on detailed plans to avoid infections being passed on through breathing equipment that is rented out to divers.

The town is also hoping to avoid crowding on its beaches with patrols by local police and civil protection officers, Barbero says. 

Paella for one

On Spain's eastern coast, the town of Gandia is looking to recruit extra lifeguards to ensure sunbathers remain at least two metres away from each other on the beach.

And it is mulling separate hours when children can go to the beach in order to avoid too much cross-over with older and more vulnerable people.   

“We're not thinking about putting up barriers… (because) you can't fence off an open space like a beach. We will keep people informed, and try ensure a sense of personal responsibility,” explains Vicent Mascarell, the town's tourism councillor.

They will also instal hand gel dispensers at beach access points, he says.    

READ MORE: Could this be the future of dining in post-coronavirus lockdown Spain?


Partitions installed in a restaurant in Madrid. Photo: AFP

 

Bars and restaurants are also looking to the future although for now, the country's main hostelry association has advised against the installation of perspex partitions as too costly.

“We're going to have to reduce capacity by half. A restaurant with 15 or 20 tables won't be able to have more than eight or 10 with a metre or 1.5 metres (three to five foot) between them,” says Jose Manuel Navarro, president of the town's hostelry association.

To limit the financial impact, the town hall will facilitate the expansion of pavement terraces to allow bars to set out more tables.   

Making menus available online will reduce the need to pass around physical menus.

And in a country where sharing food like paella or tapas is very popular, “we will see more individual portions,” says Mascarell.    

“It has to be done because we're facing a new reality,” he said.

Ultra-violet light

Hygiene measures will also be stepped up in hotels, in particular in Madrid, the worst-hit region, which is working on a “COVID-free hotel” quality seal.

For visitors arriving at the RoomMate Hotels chain, they will step onto bleach-infused carpeting to ensure their shoes and suitcase wheels are clean and then have their temperature taken before being handed given a mask, gloves and sanitising gel.

And at the VP hotel in Plaza de Espana in the city centre, guests will undergo a quick COVID-19 test before entering.   

“If the client tests positive, we will put them in a closed room before informing the health authorities,” the group's director Javier Perez told AFP.    

If the guests are negative, they will be able to go up to the rooftop bar and restaurant which has panoramic views over the city with a 50-euro surcharge to cover the cost of the test carried out by a private clinic.

The aim is to reassure the hotel's many guests who tend to be in their 60s and 70s.

“We already have 600 lunch and dinner bookings. The first week we reopen, we'll be completely booked,” says Perez, who says the hotel has invested 120,000 euros in ultra-violet light devices to ensure total disinfection.

“But we don't know if people are coming just to be tested or to eat!”    

The big question, however, is when the borders will be opened to international visitors.

For the moment, nothing has been decided at a European level, a government official told AFP.

By AFP's Emmanuelle Michel

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Published: 23 August 2023 11:36 CEST
Updated: 26 August 2023 18:32 CEST
Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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