Spain 'to welcome British holidaymakers from June'

Spain will be ready to welcome back tourists – including those from the UK – in June, the country’s tourism minister has said.

The European Union has previously set out plans for coronavirus vaccine certificates that could be used by UK holidaymakers this summer.

Digital Green Certificates will be accepted as “proof” a person had a Covid-19 jab, received a negative test result or recovered from the virus, according to the European Commission’s proposal.

And Spain – which welcomed 18 million Brits in 2019 – says a digital certificate scheme is currently being trialled with a view to a wider rollout in June.

Spain’s tourism minister Fernando Valdes Verelst told a travel and tourism conference in Mexico: “I think the best thing that Governments right now can provide to travellers is certainty, give the proper information and the security that they can travel and they can come back to the countries.

“In those terms, in the European Union, we put in place a system … that provides us with digital certificate.

“Spain is going to be ready in June to use this digital certificate. We are doing a pilot programme in May, in all our 46 airports.

“We are going to give all these travellers that certainty. Spain is going to be ready in June to tell all travellers worldwide that you can visit us.”

The UK Government has not yet confirmed whether foreign holidays will be permitted from May 17 – the earliest possible date under the roadmap – or which destinations people can visit without self-isolating on their return.

Announcing the findings of the Global Travel Taskforce earlier this month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps did confirm a traffic light system would be used to categorise countries based on risk.

In a trading update on Tuesday, low cost carrier Jet2 said they were concerned over a lack of details for international travel restarting this summer.

The company said: “Unsurprisingly, given the short-term uncertainty, customers are booking significantly closer to departure for summer 21.”

The airline added it was “disappointed at the lack of clarity contained in the Task Force’s report, in particular the as yet to be populated ‘traffic light’ framework for destinations, and full details and cost of the associated testing regime.”

Jet2 had already cancelled all holidays until June 24 in the hope of gaining more clarity on what travel can take place.

A UK Government spokesperson said: “Ensuring free and open travel with our European partners is vitally important which is why we will be engaging the European Commission on reopening travel routes from the UK shortly.”