The Telegraph
Government battles over borders as UK tries to keep variants at bay Will vaccine passports open up our holidays? What's the Global Health Insurance Card, and how does it differ to the EHIC? New UK testing entry rules: everything you need to know Sign up to the Telegraph Travel newsletter Spain's tourism minister has said the country wants to "reactivate tourism" as soon as possible, clarifying reports that it may not full reopen to holidaymakers until after summer. Reyes Maroto, minister of industry, trade and tourism, said on Friday that the availability of vaccines and the beginning of vaccination programmes in many countries gave hope of immunising the majority of the population so that they are in a position to travel safely. She added: "Our priority in 2021 is to reactivate tourism and resume safe mobility on a global scale as soon as possible. "We are working to adopt a common framework of a series of planned actions to give confidence to tourists. We hope that at the end of spring and especially during the summer, international travel will resume and travellers will choose Spain as their destination." Ms Maroto's statement follows comments from Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who said on Wednesday that "only mass vaccination will open the way to the normality we want." Speaking at the meeting of the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), held in Madrid, Mr Sanchez said: "We are already the ninth country in the world in the vaccination process and one of the first countries in Europe. "And we are going to advance with the vaccination at the highest rate until reaching 70 per cent of the population with immunity by the end of the summer. This will allow Spain to be progressively better prepared to receive international tourists." Scroll down for the latest travel updates.