With the possibility of a new wave of the Coronavirus, Spain has become in recent days the great unloved of Europe. Is it Safe to Visit Spain? Some EU countries like France, Germany and the United Kingdom have advised their citizens against travel to certain regions in Spain. But should we for all that give up going there completely this summer?
Before the pandemic, Spain used to be the popular tourist destination with over 80 million visits in 2019. This year so far, the country has only seen a little above 10 million tourists. It is estimated that Spain has lost €28.4 billion in revenue from the tourism industry.
Is it Safe to Visit Spain? Earlier, the Spanish government reassured tourists by reaffirming that the country was “safe” despite the sharp rebound of the epidemic. “We want to send out a clear message of confidence,” government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said. Spain is “a safe destination which has prepared and strengthened itself to cope with the virus and new outbreaks,” she added at the end of the Council of Ministers. “People who usually visit our country know that one of our strengths is the quality of our health system,” said Ms. Montero.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had already argued that places heavily dependent on British tourists such as the Balearics, the Canaries and the regions of Valencia and Andalusia were safe destinations. These regions “have a cumulative incidence (of the coronavirus) lower than that currently recorded in the UK, which means in epidemiological terms that these destinations are in fact safer than the UK”, he said.
Spain, which officially counts more than 29,150 deaths from the pandemic,
has seen the number of cases jump in recent weeks. In this context, the Spanish regions, competent in health matters, continued to take measures to try to contain the epidemic. This has led to the reinforcement of the mandatory wearing of the protective mask in the street and “on the terraces”. Meetings must also be limited to ten people on the terraces of cafes or in private homes.
Some of the EU states like Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Slovenia have warned against “non-essential” and tourist trips to Aragon, Barcelona, Catalunya, Figueres, Lleida and Navarra, Sagria and Vilafant. As for Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Norway, United Kingdom and Switzerland, they have warned their citizens against non-essential travels to Spain at large.
While Spain is one of the European countries with the highest number of cases detected in relation to the population, a rebound in contagions is taking place in many other European states.
