Spain's top tourism official has said the country expects to be added to the UK Government's green list of safe travel destinations within days.
Minister for tourism Fernando Valdes said he was confident it would get the green light at the next UK Government review of traffic light categories on June 7.
He said: “Spain is doing a great effort not only in terms of vaccination, we have at least one third of our whole population with at least one dose. But also, we have some holiday destinations which are very loved by British tourists such as the Balearic islands, Costa Blanca or Malaga, with notification rates which are pretty low and by the same notification range of the UK.
“So I have to suspect that on the next review that the UK government can provide. Spain is going to change on its notification.
“We are having conversations with the UK government. We have close relations with your ambassador in Madrid.”
Spain lifted restrictions on UK tourists this week with no quarantine or testing requirements for British tourists. However, the nation is still classified as amber by the UK with strict self-isolation and testing rules on return.
It officially lifted restrictions for UK travellers from Monday, with visitors no longer needing to take a PCR Covid-19 test.
Experts have claimed up to 100,000 British tourists with head to Spain this week. with flights to Majorca, Ibiza, Barcelona, Malaga, Madrid and Lanzarote.
Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, told the PA news agency there were many people who could “safely and responsibly travel to an amber country” to see family, to do business or to visit a second property.
“It’s vital consumers are aware that they will have to pay for tests and self-isolate on their return to the UK but it is safe to travel out to an amber country and not illegal in any way whatsoever,” he said.
“The travel sector is fighting to recover and needs to see more countries added to the Government green list.”
Mr Charles pointed to data from analysts Cirium suggesting that airlines had scheduled many more flights from England in the last five days.
The three most popular destinations are Spain (284 flights, 56,000 seats), Greece (150 flights, 29,000 seats) and the US (128 flights, 34,000 seats).
