ARCHIVED - Spain woos German tourists after remaining on UK amber list
Germany is Spain's second largest tourist market after the UK.
Spain has stepped up its bid to attract German tourists after remaining on the UK's amber list of safe travel destinations.
In a major blow to the tourism sector, the UK government failed to move Spain into its green list in the latest revision, continuing to recommend travellers remain in the UK this summer and insisting on a 10-day quarantine on return for those who do choose to visit amber countries.
So in a bid to reboot the tourism industry, Spain is wooing travellers from across Europe - bolstered by the issuing of EU Covid digital certificates - in particular its second-largest market, Germany.
"It may be that Germany will become our first issuing market this year, we must see how the British situation evolves," said Miguel Sanz Castedo, general director of Turespaña, a public body for tourism promotion abroad, during a presentation of the 'You deserve Spain' summer campaign at the Spanish Embassy in Berlin on Tuesday, June 8.
While there is no doubt that people want to travel again, the issue is whether people want to holiday outside their own countries, and if they do, the challenge is to make sure "they choose Spain as their destination".
A European study shows that 70 per cent of Europeans say they will travel in the next six months.
But there is a drive for staycation (staying vacations), "with many people preferring not to fly, and to travel by land within their own country," warned Turespaña.
To try to instill confidence in potential holidaymakers from Germany, the public body for tourism abroad presented a comprehensive list of practical information on entry requirements to Spain, restrictions by autonomous community, comparative rates of Covid incidence, and vaccination figures.
In regard to the latter, the Spanish government estimates that 70 per cent of the population in Spain will be vaccinated by mid-August.
"We want it to be easy for Germans to travel to Spain," stressed Turespaña.
In 2019, 18 million tourists from the UK visited Spain, 11.15 million from Germany, and 11.14 million from France.
Twelve months later, the pandemic and consequent travel restrictions saw these figures plummet to 3.6 million from France, "clearly influenced by the geographical proximity", three million from the UK and 2.4 million from Germany.
And between January and April of this year, in which full mobility restrictions were imposed, 418,000 French travellers visited Spain, and 331,000 Germans.
Spain's tourism body stressed that "this must be a summer of recovery and stability," and forecasts the number of travellers to Spain during high-season will be between 60 and 75 per cent of those in 2019.
The 'You Deserve Spain' summer campaign in Germany features six videos comparing the last 15 months of restrictions with a "well-deserved holiday in Spain, at last".
And along with promoting sun and beach resorts - hugely popular with Germans - the campaign also highlights mountainous, hiking, nature and cultural destinations.
IMAGE: Archive