Spain has hit back over the UK's quarantine U-turn and claimed the country is safe for tourists.
The Scottish and UK Government both last night reimposed 14-day quarantine rues for tourists heading home from Spain after a spike of coronavirus cases in the country.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had told Scots last Monday that they could now travel to Spain for a holiday without any restrictions.
Sturgeon originally left Spain off Scotland's first list "air bridge" destinations because of concerns with the rate of Covid-19 infection.
But the Scottish Government last week removed the requirement, despite the infection rate tripling.
Then on Saturday night Sturgeon announced that the rules had changed once more as she told Scots tourists they need to self-isolate for 14 days again on their return home if they are heading to Spain or are already there.
The UK Government also reversed their July 10 easing of restrictions for travellers heading to the popular holiday destination.
Last year, Britons made up over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies on heavily on tourism revenues, meaning the UK move could deal a hard blow to efforts to restart the country's economy after months of lockdown.
And the Spanish Government has now insisted their country is safe for tourists.
"Spain is safe, it is safe for Spaniards, it is safe for tourists," Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told reporters.
"As in every other country, we are seeing outbreaks, which are perfectly under control. Most new cases are asymptomatic.''
Spain has seen Covid-19 cases rise in the last few weeks, but the country has seen around half the deaths that Britain has suffered.
While Gonzalez Laya avoided directly criticising the UK move, British tourists travelling in Spain were more blunt.
"It's a bit crazy considering the restrictions in place in Spain already are really good, with the masks, with disinfecting everything, with hand wash in the shops. That's better than what we have in London," Rich Lambert, a communications officer, said at Barcelona's airport.
The British Foreign Office has now advised against all but essential travel to mainland Spain, leaving the Balearic and Canary islands out of the advice but including them in the quarantine measure.
TUI UK, part of the TUI, holiday company, said it would cancel all holidays to mainland Spain up to August 9, while maintaining flights to the Balearic and Canary islands.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab defended the quarantine decision on Sunday, as a "real-time response" to a jump in infections in Spain. "We can't make apologies ... we must be able to take swift, decisive action," he said on Sky News.
Spain's rise in COVID-19 cases has prompted most regions to impose rules for masks to be worn everywhere and, in several areas including Barcelona, calls for people to stay at home.
Most new cases have been concentrated in the northeastern region of Catalonia and neighbouring regions, so a lot of the criticism focused on the fact that the quarantine also applies to areas which have been spared the brunt of the pandemic.
"This is ridiculous. There are almost no cases here and there's a far higher chance of contracting it when I get back to Britain," said John Snelling, 50, from Stratford-upon-Avon, who was on holiday in Menorca.
Britain has been the hardest-hit country in Europe by the pandemic. Spain was also badly affected, with more than 290,000 cases and over 28,000 deaths. It imposed very strict lockdown measures, gradually easing them earlier in the summer.
Norway last week reimposed a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain, while France advised people not to travel to Catalonia.
But a collapse of tourism from Britain would have far more of an impact on Spain, where tourism accounts for 12% of economic output. Britons make up the largest group of foreign visitors by nationality.
"This decision is an absolute disaster for the recovery, there's no other way to see this," Angel Tavares, head of European Economics at Oxford Economics consulting, said on Twitter, referring to the quarantine measure.
Maria Frontera, head of Mallorca's FEHM hotel association said she was shocked by the UK move "just like the British citizens who were enjoying their holidays here in Spain."
