Spain to allow UK tourists from Sunday - but quarantine awaits on return

British holidaymakers are free to travel to Spain from Sunday without facing the requirement to self-isolate, the country's foreign minister announced last night - but visitors will have to quarantine in the UK when they return.

Spain decided to lift its restrictions on travellers from the UK, but a reciprocal deal creating so-called air bridge is yet to be struck, meaning tourists will have to stay at home for two weeks on their return to Britain.

"We will allow British visitors to enter Spain just like the rest of the European Union or Schengen from 21 June freely and without the need for the quarantine," Arancha Gonzalez Laya said. She said Spain is still discussing with UK authorities whether they will offer the same conditions for Spanish visitors to the UK.

Despite the lack of a two-way deal, the news is likely to please up to 400,000 Brits with second homes in Spain or those desperate to visit some of the 240,000 British expats in the country.

The Telegraph understands that Boris Johnson is also in talks with Portugal, Greece, and France, among other countries which could benefit from air bridges as soon as mid-July. “The plan is to announce a small number of air bridges on June 29, though it won’t come into force until July 4," a source told the Telegraph on Friday.

Spain initially refused to lift restrictions to Brits unless it secured a reciprocal arrangement, but appeared to have caved in under pressure to boost its battered tourism industry.

New arrivals in Spain would have their temperatures checked and have to provide a contact to authorities so that they could be traced in the event of Covid-19 contagion, Ms González said.

It came as Spain's state of emergency finally lapses on Sunday, with a warning from the prime minister on Saturday night for people not to get complacent about the virus and a possible second wave of infections.

Hi comments come as Portugal grapples with a stubbornly high infection rate around key holiday resorts, with an illegal party this week spreading the virus and damaging the country's image as a safe haven..

The hundreds of news infections a day threaten to derail Mr Johnson’s air bridge plan, which would allow Britons to enjoy holidays abroad in safe countries without having to quarantine upon their return. One recent outbreak came from an illegal mass gathering in the Algarve resort town of Lagos.

“To hold a party with reportedly over 100 people, during a pandemic, when using masks and promoting social distancing has been talked about at length … I do hope these people are held accountable,” regional health delegate Ana Cristina Guerreiro said.

So far 16 people from the party have tested positive for Covid-19. Among them are two children, aged 12 and seven, who did not attend the party but are believed to have contracted the virus through their mothers.

Portugal’s foreign minister has insisted that the country remains safe for tourists, while the government believes the rate of daily infections has remained high due to widespread testing.

But the steady rise in infections has led to concerns that some holiday destinations may end up being too risky to be part of the Prime Minister’s “air bridge” plan.

The air bridges will only be cleared after advice from the Chief Medical Office and the Foreign Office agrees to lift its ban on non-essential travel to the holiday destinations.

Manuel Lobo Antunes, the Portuguese ambassador to the UK, yesterday/SAT sought to reassure British holidaymakers that they could soon fly to Portugal.

"There was very good news for you, for us, for Europe that the alert system has come from four to three and that means a significant improvement in the control of the pandemic here in the UK,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

"We think that the situation is under control and we would be happy to receive, as before, as many British as possible."

In total, Portugal, which has come away relatively unscathed from the pandemic despite bordering hard-hit Spain, has reported more than 38,000 cases and 1,524 deaths due to the coronavirus.

According to the country’s health minister, 80 per cent of the cases are concentrated in the Greater Lisbon region, which is also a hugely popular tourist destination.

Portuguese authorities were this week carrying out thousands of tests after a large party was thrown in the tourist town of Lagos, in breach of lockdown rules which forbid gatherings of more than 20 people.

According to Lagos council, around 100 people attended the party and eventually police were called in to break it up.

Should the Algarve suffer a severe outbreak then the tourism industry would suffer a major blow that will pile yet more pressure on a region already suffering from high unemployment.

The rate of daily coronavirus infections in Portugal peaked at the beginning of April but has since fallen to much lower levels.

Skyscanner, the flight booking website, says that the number of online searches for return travel from the UK increased by 34 per cent between May 10 and June 10.

Around one third of people are looking to travel in the next 30 days, but Skyscanner also said that the number of bookings remained far below pre-pandemic levels.

“Right now, consumers are navigating a complex decision-making process,” said Skyscanner spokesman Gavin Harris.

“There still remains uncertainty about the provision of future travel in both the short and longer term.”