‘We need British tourists’ Canary Island calls for Spain to have ‘common sense’ on rules

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Many British tourists have faced issues when it comes to holidaying in Spain due to the country’s rules on vaccination. All tourists over the age of 12 have to be vaccinated.

However, many British teenagers haven’t had the chance to have two vaccinations especially if they only just turned 12.

This has forced British families to cancel holidays for February half term as they are unable to travel.

The president of the Fuerteventura Tourist Association (ASOFUER) Antonio Hormiga, said: “We are losing a lot of British tourism in the Canary Islands because the central Government continues to fail to apply common sense.”

He said there had been more than 60,000 British cancellations for the Christmas holidays due to the rules.

Hormiga added that this had had a “very negative effect on the economy”. The Canary Islands are often busy during the winter months.

The popular islands are one of Europe’s few beach destinations to have guaranteed good weather all year round.

Hormiga said it makes no sense that people from other EU countries are able to enter Spain with a negative test.

He said: “We need British tourists, we are not asking to lower our guard or stop applying the anti-Covid protocols, but we demand the measures be applied consistently to be a safe destination and, at the same time, to save our economy.”

Spain changed the rules for British travellers at the start of December following the emergence of Omicron in the UK.

While the UK was one of the first European countries to see cases soar, many others soon followed.

Hormiga said it didn’t seem right that people from countries with higher rates of Covid could enter with a negative test.

Tourism officials on the islands of Tenerife and Lanzarote have also called for the Government to loosen restrictions.

They fear that they will lose tourists to competitors such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal as those countries have fewer restrictions.

Travel operator TUI said it was seeing a trend for bookings that didn’t require tourists to take a Covid test.

The Spanish Government has not indicated whether it intends to relax the rules for British tourists.

It has announced that masks will no longer be mandatory outside from February 10 except in certain circumstances.

Currently, unvaccinated British travellers over the age of 12 are not allowed to enter Spain.

If a Briton’s second jab was more than 270 days ago they will need to have a booster jab to travel to Spain.

Until February 11, British travellers will need to take a lateral flow test on or before day two after arrival in the UK.

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