(TAN): German holidaymakers are travelling to Spain’s Balearic Islands as part of a pilot project to help Spain kick-start its tourism industry after it was hit by COVID-19, reports said.
Nearly 11,000 tourists from Germany are expected to arrive on the islands on 47 flights over the coming days, as per reports. Most of these visitors will reportedly stay on Mallorca, although there will be eight flights to Ibiza and one to Menorca.
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The tourists, who will have to spend at least five days on the islands, will be allowed entry without the requirement to test for COVID-19 or mandatorily quarantine themselves for 14 days, according to reports.
They will however need to fill out a public health form, get their temperatures checked upon arrival and disclose detailed information including their contact and the address of their accommodation, as per reports. While health authorities will stay in contact with the tourists during the course of their stay, they will be subjected to a PCR test in case they show any symptoms, reports said.
The scheme will reportedly act as a test before Spain reopens its borders to the European Union and Schengen Area countries on June 21. Balearic Islands President Francina Armengol reportedly said the initiative was “an important step in helping to restore the Balearics’s reputation as a safe, quality destination”.
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“The goal of this pilot project is to check the model of lifting border restrictions and to recover free circulation,” the Spanish Health Ministry was quoted by Anadolu Agency as saying.
Germany was selected for the programme for two reasons – the country sends a large number of visitors to the archipelago, and because the health situation in Germany was similar to that of the islands, reports said.
“We’re in a similar epidemiological situation to Germany, but that isn’t the case with the UK. What’s more, with Germany we are negotiating within EU conditions and the Schengen zone, which is not the case with the UK,” Iago Negueruela, head of the Balearics’ tourism department, said.
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Despite the European Commission’s recommendation to reopen all internal borders on June 15, Spanish authorities will not open them generally until July 1, as per reports. Everybody arriving to Spain, except for these approved German visitors, will have to go through the two-week quarantine measure until then, reports said.
While Spanish residents are still not permitted to travel outside of their region, the German tourists will similarly have to remain on the Balearic Islands, according to a report.
COVID-19 has infected over 244,000 people in Spain and killed 27,136, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
