We have urgent news for those planning to fly out of the UK on holiday. It turns out that one popular tourist destination has introduced very strict rules!
The issue in question concerns Spain and border controls on arrival from the UK. Some of us may be refused entry to the Iberian Peninsula. How is this possible?
This is because few people are familiar with the new rules, which have been in force since the beginning of 2022 – but only now have they started to be applied on a massive scale. What are they about?
The guards at the border may ask you to show additional documents, and your passport is no longer sufficient to cross the Spanish border. Above all, you may be obliged to show return tickets.
Secondly, you may need to show confirmation of your accommodation booking – this could be a printout from booking.com, for example. If you are staying with family, a letter of invitation will “suffice”.
However, that is not all. The guard may require you to show your bank balance! This is because Spain requires every tourist to have at least €100 a day for the duration of their stay.
100 euros is about £85. So if you are going on a week’s holiday, you must have at least £600 for each adult. If you do not have this amount in your account, you may be refused entry to Spain.
It sounds like an unpleasant joke, but it is not – these are official regulations approved by the government there. The UK, after leaving the EU, is classified as a third category country. We are therefore subject to the same rules as people from Morocco, Egypt or India.
Outraged travellers are asking themselves – what about those who buy all-inclusive holidays and do not plan to spend on the spot? We don’t know the answer to this question – and neither, it seems, does the Spanish government, which has decided that it wants to make more profit out of tourists than before. Judging by the mood online, such a decision could turn on a completely different outcome.