The Canary Islands are relieved that Spain opens to the British but ask ‘is it too late?’

Business owners in the Canary Islands breathed a sigh of relief yesterday after the order was published by the Central Government in the Official State Boletin (BOE), which allows children from the UK, aged over 12 and less than 18, to enter the country without being fully vaccinated, as long as they present a negative PCR test carried out within 72 hours of travelling.

However, at the moment anyone aged 18 or over who hasn’t been fully vaccinated still can’t enter Spain, the Canary Islands or the Balearic Islands, as the ruling for adults is still in place, and children under 12 years old travelling with an adult, are exempt.

This decision puts an end to the requirement imposed by Spain on December 1^st for 12 to 17 year olds, which was impossible for many to meet due to the vaccination deadlines in the UK for children, and subsequently has affected the winter season on the islands.

It is estimated that only 13% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 have both vaccines in the UK, and 100,000 bookings from British families over Christmas were cancelled, costing the islands an estimated 400 million euros in lost income.

The change, which comes into force at 00:00h Sunday night/Monday morning (February 14^th), raises tourism expectations for March when occupancy levels could recover to 70% if the sixth wave continues to decline and more restrictions are removed.

"Hindsight is worth nothing but the lifting of this measure is too late," says the MD of the Be Cordial & Resorts chain who is also a member of the FEHT, Nicolás Villalobos.

The president of FEHT, José María Mañaricua, agrees that Spain's demand for full vaccination has ruined half-term bookings for the Canary Islands, school holidays that start on Monday in the UK, and a week that is traditionally used by British families to leave the country for some winter sun.

“We can recover something this weekend, but most of the holidays are already booked to Portugal, Greece or Turkey, especially as requirements when returning to the UK were lifted yesterday,” says Mañaricua, who criticizes that the government order doesn’t come into force immediately and we have to wait until Monday for it to be effective.

“It is clear that we have made progress, but we do not understand why a PCR and not an antigen test is required,” he said. In other European destinations that are competitors of the Canary Islands, the antigen test has been chosen.

To try to alleviate the losses incurred, the president of Ashotel and Cehat, Jorge Marichal, requested a "flash" campaign yesterday from the Spanish Government to reactivate travel from the UK and recover the cancellations of recent weeks.

He has called on the Government to contact the British authorities, tour operators, and the media, to reactivate travel to Spain and the Canary Islands. Marichal has been very critical of the demands that Spain imposed on British travellers, saying that they were "against common sense".