Order published in Official State Gazette regulating authorisation of pilot programme to open up safe tourist corridors in Balearic Islands

On Friday, the Official State Gazette published a Ministerial Order regulating the authorisation of the pilot programme to open up safe tourist corridors in the Balearic Islands as from Monday, 15 June. This programme will allow tourists to arrive in this autonomous region from Schengen Member States or associated States by specific air routes.

To so this, the Balearic Islands need to be in Phase 3 of the Plan for the Transition towards the New Normal and to have a rate of people infected by COVID-19 of fewer than nine cases per 100,000 inhabitants for seven straight days.

Furthermore, inbound tourists must reside in the same State as the airport of origin, which must have the same rate of people infected per 100,000 inhabitants as the destination for the same length of time.

Requirements to be met

Tourists will not be obliged to go into quarantine but must be prepared to show proof of a return ticket and proof of accommodation for the whole stay, which may not be less than five nights.

In turn, the airports of origin and destination, together with the airlines covering the flights, must form part of the Voluntary Monitoring Programme of the Implementation of the EASA Operational Protocol for COVID-19 or have implemented the recommendations of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), as from 15 June or the time when flights will depart. These companies should also report the maximum number of seats they plan to fill each day.

Airlines must also provide a public health form to locate passengers. And, once at the arrival airport, staff from the External Health Authority will be in charge of performing the necessary health controls, which will include control of documents.

In turn, the active monitoring of tourists will correspond to the regional government, and be carried out through the electronic monitoring of their symptomology. Accordingly, possible cases of COVID-19 can be identified and isolated.

Monitoring Committee

The aim of this pilot project is to verify the functioning of the model to lift the temporary controls on internal borders and the recovery of the freedom of movement. To do this, a Monitoring Committee will be set up to meet every other day to adopt decisions by consensus.

This Committee will be made up of representatives of the Ministry of Health, the State Secretariat of Tourism, AENA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, and of the competent regional health and tourism departments of the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands.

Non official translation