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TOURISM

Macron: ‘Vaccinated Americans should be able to travel to France this summer’

French president Emmanuel Macron says he hopes that Americans who have had the Covid vaccine will be able to travel to France this summer - after more than a year in which travel to France from the USA has been heavily restricted.

Published: 19 April 2021 10:18 CEST
Macron: 'Vaccinated Americans should be able to travel to France this summer'
Photo: Kenzo Tribaullard/AFP

In an interview with the American news channel CBS, the president says that he hopes the ban on most travel from the USA – which has been in place since March 2020 – can be lifted this summer.

He said: “We will progressively lift the restrictions [in France] from the beginning of May, which means that we will organise in the summer time with our professionals in France for French European citizens, but as well for American citizens”.

The president made it clear that travel will likely be allowed, “especially for US citizens who are vaccinated, so with a special pass, I would say.”

For the past year travel into France from the US has only been allowed for ‘essential reasons’ which has ruled out visits from American second-home owners and made many family visits impossible.

“The idea is to offer travel to the American citizen when they decide to be vaccinated or with a negative PCR test” Macron clarified, “so the idea is to always control the virus, to maximise the vaccination, and to progressively lift the restrictions.”

France is currently battling a third wave of Covid cases, driven by new variants, and is under a ‘partial lockdown’ with limits on travel, shopping and socialising. However Macron said that he aims to begin reopening some parts of the country from mid May.

The French government is expected to announce a more detailed programme for reopening at the end of April.

Additionally, Macron told the Face the Nation programme that the country’s vaccine rollout is steadily progressing due to production increase.

European ‘health passports’ are also on the horizon, with Thierry Breton, head of the European Commission task force, last month claiming he hopes the continent will have a summer “comparable to last year.”

Discussions on the vaccine passports are ongoing, but it is likely that they will have provision for either a vaccination certificate or a negative Covid test.

For full details on the restrictions currently in place on travel into France from EU and non-EU countries, head to our Travelling to France section. 

Member comments

  1. This is wonderful news. Even if we get to go we will plan to be very careful and mainly work on our house and gardens.

  2. We are so delighted at the prospect of returning to our home in France this summer. We have been vaccinated and ready to travel. Much work to do at the house.

  4. Pingback: Anonymous
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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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