Holidaymakers may not be able to visit the Canary Islands until at least October.
The region - which includes popular holiday hotspots Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzaroteone - is one of the most devastated by the coronavirus crisis due to its economic reliance on the tourism trade.
And Spain has also been badly hit with more than 21,000 deaths and more than 200,000 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
President Ángel Víctor Torres has now said that the prospect of hotels in the Canary Islands being open by June 1 as "too optimistic" and that if they open in July or August then they "would be walking in a good way."
He also said that the re-introduction of tourism in the area would be staggered in phases.
This could see international tourism being held back until phase three during the "strong months" for the Canary Islands.
President Torres told El Mundo : "We must advance the possibility of having internal island tourism to regain economic normality. Phase two would be to recover national tourism, with controls at airports. And the third phase would be international tourism.
"We cannot put everything together in the end. So that in October, November or December, which are strong months in the Canary Islands, we can start receiving tourists from other countries."
The latest development comes as Spain announces that it will begin to ease its lockdown measures from mid-May.
The country currently has some of the strictest measures in place with adults only allowed to leave their homes individually to buy food or medicine, travel to work or walk their dogs.
