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TOURISM

Canary Islands added to safe list for UK and Germany

Holidaymakers looking for winter sun will be allowed to visit the Canary Islands without needing to quarantine on their return after the UK and Germany lifted the archipelago from the danger list.

Published: 23 October 2020 10:11 CEST
Canary Islands added to safe list for UK and Germany
Photos: AFP

The news will come as a huge boost to the Canary Islands whose authorities have long been lobbying to be treated differently from mainland Spain which has the highest infection rate in Europe.

The 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases in Spain stands at 349 cases per 100,000 inhabitants while the islands have a recorded incidence rate of 82 cases per 100,000 inhabitants

The Canary Islands can now open up in time for October half term and prepare for the winter tourism season after suffering a devastating spring and summer.

Beyond having to fill in passenger locator forms and have a temperature check on arrival, visitors to the Canaries currently face no restrictions to entry.

The UK placed Spain on the quarantine list back in July after Spain saw a surge in cases which have now reached over a million since the pandemic began. The rest of Spain, including the Balearic Islands, remain subject to quarantine restrictions with travellers obliged to quarantine for 14 days on their return.

Tourism accounts for about 35 percent of the Canary's economic output and half of the annual tourism revenues come during the winter months, with tourists from Britain accounting for about a third of all visitors.

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Travel companies, which have seen demand slump due to the quarantine rules, welcomed the decision on the Canaries.

“The Canaries are a hugely important market for winter travel – representing over 50% of bookings for some tour operators – so this is very welcome news for the whole sector,” industry body Airlines UK told the BBC.

Andrew Flintham, managing director of TUI, said the holiday operator had not been able to take people on a holiday to the Canaries for 89 days.

“We're therefore delighted that UK flights will now resume from Saturday 24 October. The first flights will depart to Fuerteventura and Lanzarote this weekend, with many more added in the coming days.”

Announcing the news on Thursday, Hugh Elliott, the British Ambassador in Madrid said:

“We have announced today that the Canary Islands will be added to the UK's Travel Corridors list. This means that, from 4am this Sunday, 25th October, if you are travelling back to the UK from the Canary Islands you will no longer have to self-isolate on arrival. You will still be required to show a passenger locator form on arrival, unless you fall into a small group of exemptions.

“We have also updated our travel advice for the Canary Islands, which are now exempt from the FCDO's global advisory against non-essential travel,” he explained.

“This decision follows the Joint Biosecurity Centre's latest risk assessment for the Canary Islands, which indicates that the risk to UK public health has decreased to an acceptable level. And I'd like to congratulate and to thank the island authorities for the great efforts that they have made to contain the pandemic and which have been crucial in making this decision possible.


“We know how much tourism matters to Spain and the Canary Islands, as well as to the many UK nationals who visit every year, especially during the winter months. But Coronavirus is still a significant challenge for all of us, so if you do travel, please ensure you comply with local regulations, such as social distancing and wearing masks,” he said. 

 

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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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