Spain has announced it will only let in British holidaymakers who are fully vaccinated or have a negative ‘Gold Standard’ PCR test.
The shock move comes just days after the UK government announced it was putting the Balearic Islands on the green list - and hours after Portugal said it would only let in fully-vaccinated Brit tourists from today.
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez made the announcement, saying the UK’s Covid figures were “worrying” because the accumulated 14-day rate was “well above 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.”
Spain opened up to British tourists at the end of May, despite France and Germany unveiling tougher rules.
At the time Spanish Mr Sanchez extended his own personal invite to holidaymakers from the UK by announcing in English they could return with no Covid tests or vaccine requirements.
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Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya appeared to confirm last Thursday the country would snub Angela Merkel, who had been pushing to impose an EU-wide quarantine on British tourists, by saying holidaymakers from the UK would continue to be let into the country without quarantining.
She said at a press conference with her Panamanian counterpart Erika Mouynes after their meeting in Madrid: “At the moment we are maintaining the measures which enable British citizens to enter our territory.”
The new Spanish rules will begin to be applied in the next 72 hours.
The Balearic Islands, which include Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca, move to green on Wednesday.
Island politicians had been urging the Spanish government to push for more tests “in origin” before UK tourists are allowed in, but nothing had been announced till today.
Mr Sanchez made his surprise announcement about the new rules for British tourists during a long interview on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.
Responding to a question from an interviewer about whether Britain could rethink its decision to put the Balearic Islands on its green list following a mass outbreak of coronavirus among students who had travelled to Majorca on end-of-year breaks, he said: “What we are going to do with British holidaymakers travelling to the Balearics is what we do with other European citizens.
“They will need to be fully vaccinated or show a negative PCR test to be able to travel to the Balearic Islands.
“We will apply this in the next 72 hours and the tour operators and British tourists will be able to adapt to these new rules.”
He denied the move was linked to geopolitics and Brexit, following Angela Merkel’s demand EU countries should make British nationals quarantine, saying: “I see a negative development of the accumulated incidence of coronavirus in the UK in these last few weeks.
"They are well above 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days and we all have to take additional precautions with regards to British visitors to our country.”
Spanish Tourism Ministry sources confirmed the new rules would be applied to the whole of Spain including all its islands.
An official state bulletin will be published later today.
