Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced over the weekend that Spain will reopen to overseas tourists, beginning July 1, 2020. On that date, the government will officially lift its current fourteen-day quarantine policy for foreign arrivals, The Telegraph reported.
Sánchez said: "As you know, Spain receives more than 80 million visitors a year. I am announcing that from July, Spain will reopen for foreign tourism in conditions of safety," said Sánchez, according to, The Guardian. "Spain needs tourism, and tourism needs safety in both origin and destination. We will guarantee that tourists will not run any risks, nor will they bring any risk to our country."
He also called upon Spaniards to begin planning their own domestic holidays to help kick-start the economy, following more than two months' worth of lockdown-some of the strictest in Europe. In a further boost to national morale, he also announced that football (soccer) leagues would be allowed to resume activities, starting on June 8.
Sánchez' speech came in the wake of a "car demo", which was organized by the far-right political party Vox, which has accused the prime minister's administration of an unnecessarily severe response to the pandemic that prompted "unemployment and misery" throughout Spain.
May 23 saw demonstrations in the streets of Madrid and Barcelona with cavalcades of cars, buses and motorcycles draped in Spanish flags, honking loudly in protest as participants angrily chanted anti-government slogans and demanded Sánchez' resignation.
In his May 23 announcement, Sánchez stated that Spain's central and regional governments had already been working on coordinated plans to return the nation to tourism for weeks. He also unveiled a €3 billion (roughly $3.3 billion) economic relief plan to provide those citizens most who've been most affected by the pandemic with minimum basic incomes until the country can get back on its feet.
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