No quarantine for Brits travelling to Spain

The 'direct entry' will be in line with procedures for all European Union and Schengen countries, even though the UK is neither – it has never belonged to the latter, and formally left the EU on January 31 this year, although until New Year's Eve it is treated as a member as it remains in transition.

Sra González Laya (pictured) says Spain will carry out a 'triple test' – checking the departure point of incoming visitors is on the 'safe' list; temperatures taken at the airport upon arrival, and the passenger's data and contact details taken to ensure authorities can get in touch with them in the event of a Covid-19 case being confirmed in someone who has been near them.

The possibility of imposing a two-week quarantine on British arrivals was raised after the UK government announced it intended to do this with all travellers from Spain, and Spanish authorities considered the idea of 'reciprocal treatment'.

No other EU country has proposed quarantining its visitors from any other member State.

But Spain is mindful of the fact that by far the largest national group of its summer tourists is from the UK, meaning placing any hurdles in the way could harm the industry, and also, more Brits own holiday homes in Spain than those who live in the Mediterranean country year-round.

“We're in talks with British authorities to see whether they intend to do the same [dropping quarantine requirements], out of respect for the 410,000 Brits who own a second home in Spain,” says the foreign affairs minister.

“We want to be sure that we're complying with our commitment to treat British citizens in a similar way to those of other EU member States from an epidemiological point of view.”

In an interview with the BBC reported in Spanish media, the minister said: “We hope British authorities will be sensitive to the quarter of a million Spaniards living in the UK who would like to be able to [visit their families in Spain and return home to Britain] without quarantine.”

Britain is said to be due to review its quarantine requirements for travellers from outside the country on June 29, although it is not clear whether these are likely to be dropped.

They were first introduced on June 8, and the UK government reportedly said it would revisit the rule every three weeks.

British authorities are said to be in communication with the governments of France, Italy, Portugal and Greece as well as Spain.

Whilst the UK foreign office is advising against 'all but essential travel', the fact that Spain has managed to contain the pandemic and is now out of lockdown, with the few Covid-19 cases diagnosed under tight control, means Brits could well be safer on holiday in the Spanish sun than at home.

Yesterday, the UK reported 1,200 new cases and 128 deaths in just one day, even though its lockdown restrictions have been largely lifted and these were not as stringent as in Spain.

Although Spain had been talking of opening up to international travellers from July 1, it has opted to do so 11 days earlier with its European partners, except Portugal, where the frontier will remain closed until the start of next month as a precaution following a recent localised outbreak in the neighbouring country.

Already, German holidaymakers have started travelling to the Balearic Islands as part of a 'pilot scheme' for a 'safe tourism corridor', and around 100 planes were due to land in Spain today from foreign departure points.

Earlier this month, various British media headlined Spanish president Pedro Sánchez's assurance that UK nationals would be welcome in the country this summer and that they could 'start planning their holidays in the sun'.