Yahoo News Spain's foreign minister urges British government to reconsider holiday quarantine
Spain's foreign minister said on Sunday she was trying to convince the UK government to exclude the Balearic and Canary Islands from the two-week quarantine imposed on visitors from Spain.
Arancha Gonzalez Laya said: “At the moment our dialogue efforts are focused on excluding from the quarantine measures of the Balearic and Canary Islands.
“This is for two reasons – number one these are islands, very safe territories; number two, their epidemiological data is extremely positive and well below the epidemiological data in the UK.”
She added: “We do hope that this dialogue we have started with the UK authorities, together with the governments of the Balearic and Canary Islands, will bear fruit shortly.”
She said Spain would take measures regarding other countries if needed, based on epidemiological data, but there would be no tit-for-tat retaliation for the British quarantine.
The Balearic and Canary Islands’ governments are both hoping to establish 'safe air corridors’ with the UK to save the summer season and to save the holidays of thousands of Britons who have booked to travel there.
Both regional governments said they were working with the Spanish and UK authorities to set up the scheme for islands like Majorca, Ibiza and the seven Canary Islands.
The islands are the favourite destinations for British tourists in Spain.
Last year, 18.08 million British tourists holidayed in Spain, of which 27% chose the Canary Islands and 20% headed for Majorca, Ibiza or Menorca, according to data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute.
Authorities in the Balearic Islands hope they can convince the British authorities to make an exception for them because the rate of coronavirus infections is far lower in the islands than on the Spanish mainland.
The islands have had eight confirmed Covid-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks, compared with the UK where the figure is 14.1 and in Spain as a whole where the figure is 37.9, authorities said.
“The Balearic Islands’ government has been working over the last few hours to establish the basis for a safe air corridor with the UK, following the British government’s quarantine imposition for all holidaymakers returning from Spain,” the government said in a statement.
“The British government’s decision has caused great concern in the Balearic Islands’ government, given that it will cause serious problems to tourist activity in our islands.
“One of the main arguments justifying the creation of a safe air corridor between the islands and the UK is the health situation here.”
Meanwhile, Canary Islands president Angel Victor Torres has asked the Spanish government to try to negotiate safe air corridors with the UK.
Mr Torres is said to have asked Spain’s tourism minister Maria Reyes Maroto and Ms Laya to lead the air corridor negotiations with Britain.
The islands have one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 in Europe, with 5.8 cases per 100,000.
Yaiza Castilla, the tourism minister for the islands, said the reintroduction of quarantine for British tourists “would be detrimental to the Canary Islands due to the repercussions for the tourism sector at a time when the some connectivity with the United Kingdom was beginning to recover”.
Last week, there were about 200 flights from the UK to the Canary Islands but many were not full, the tourism ministry said.
More airlines were due to increase the number of flights from Britain to the islands from Sunday.
The Canary Islands, which depends on tourism for 35% of its GDP, is with Madrid one of the latest regions where wearing masks is not compulsory if social distancing cannot be guaranteed.
