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Spain will not open to tourists until the end of summer says Prime Minister

Pedro Sánchez says Spain needs to vaccinate 70 per cent of its population before it welcomes tourists

Spain will not open to tourists until the end of the summer.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made the announcement during a speech at the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in Madrid on January 20.

“Only mass vaccination will open the way to the normality we want," Sánchez said and confirmed that Spain would need to vaccinate 70 per cent of its population before it could welcome tourists.

This will be a blow to the Spanish club scene and will be acutely felt in Ibiza, where superclubs have been shut since the autumn of 2019.

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Spain is a huge destination for techno tourists looking to visit Sonar festival or the rich club scenes of Ibiza, Barcelona and Madrid.

Last year some open air venues did open in Ibiza for socially-distanced events but it was a far cry from the island's usual summer season, with all of the major clubs remaining closed due to the pandemic.

Sánchez said that he expects Spain to hit its vaccination target by the end of the summer, when the country would "progressively" open up to tourism.

The Prime Minister said that Spain will be “the beacon of the resurrection of tourism in all the world” by adopting such an approach.

[Via Euro Weekly]

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