Anyone fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be allowed into Spain from June 7, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Friday.
This includes travelers from non-EU countries like Turkey and the US, although Spain will only accept those who have received a vaccine recognized by the World Health Organization or European Medicines Agency.
Sanchez also announced that travelers from the UK and Japan will be allowed into the country without having to present a negative COVID-19 test from Monday. They join the list of safe countries that includes New Zealand, South Korea, Israel and Rwanda.
The EU’s so-called vaccine passport that aims to facilitate travel within Europe will also take effect on July 1, Sanchez said.
“We are convinced that both the EU digital COVID certificate and the relaxation of restrictions on other countries will allow us to have a much better summer than 2020,” Sanchez said.
He was speaking at the ongoing FITUR tourism conference in Madrid, which is the first major international tourism fair to have taken place in person since the pandemic began.
By the end of 2021, Spain expects to see tourism arrival numbers reach 60-70% of what they were before the pandemic, according to Sanchez.
“Tourism will be the springboard that will get us out of this crisis and on the path to recovery,” he said.
On Thursday, the EU announced that it could soon open its doors to vaccinated travelers from outside the bloc or to countries that have low contagion levels.
The EU is expected to announce its list of safe countries within the next week.
