Spain at World Travel Market: “We disagree with the 90-day rule for UK visitors”

SPAIN is open to relaxing the so-called '90-day rule' for British visitors and holiday-home owners – although its national government is not sure it will have the powers to take any action.

Minister for industry, tourism and trade, Héctor Gómez, and Secretary of State for tourism, Rosana Morillo, were recently at London's World Travel Market – one of the biggest holiday trade fairs on earth, and the UK capital's answer to Madrid's famous FITUR exhibition.

Whilst there, Gómez recalled that the UK is Spain's largest foreign tourist market, and said that all the signs pointed to its continuing to be so in 2024.

Spain, along with other key holiday countries in Europe popular with British nationals, feared Brexit would create a negative impact on their tourism industry, but Gómez and Sra Morillo confirm this has not been the case for the Spanish sector.

Still, Brexit has caused huge challenges for people in Britain who own holiday homes in EU nations, particularly those who have always spent significant amounts of their year in them, or who have family in EU countries they may need long-term 'access' to at any given point.

What is the '90/180' rule?

This is because, with the UK's departure from the EU, the nation became subject to third-country Schengen zone rules: Its residents are limited to 90 consecutive days within the European passport-free area in any 180 days.

As an EU member State, despite not being in the Schengen zone, the UK did not have such limitations – but now, anyone living in Britain who travels to Europe on January 1 will have to leave before April 1, or face severe sanctions.

And if they use up those full 90 days from January 1 to March 31 inclusive – or March 30 in 2024, a leap year – they then cannot travel to any EU Schengen-area country until after June 29.

This means a holiday-home owner who spends the first quarter of the year in Spain is then not permitted to take a weekend in Paris in April or attend to a family emergency in Italy in May, for example.

Those who want to spend longer in the Schengen zone have to apply to become a permanent resident of the country they spend the longest in, meeting the much stricter immigration rules that apply to non-EU citizens, and giving up their residency in the UK.

'Unfortunate' but 'not Spain's decision'

Héctor Gómez is very aware of the problem faced by British nationals in terms of limitations on their time spent in Spain – or, indeed, any EU country within the passport-free area.

But this is not a rule applied by Spain, or by any national government in Europe – it is the default situation for any country outside the EU-27, meaning it automatically came into effect on the day the UK left the bloc.

Gómez was quoted in an article by the London-based LBC radio as saying: “Unfortunately, this rule is not something Spain has established by itself, or can get rid of.

“It is in our interest to lobby and convince the EU that we can try to work an exception with them – but the solution must come from [the EU].”

The French Senate recently voted to make changes to its rules on immigration to allow British citizens with holiday homes in France to get a visa letting them stay longer than the standard 90 days per 180, and which would be automatically granted.

But it is not clear how the French government intends to put this into practice, given that it is not a decision any member State can make unilaterally.

UK and Spain 'to work together'

Spain could be in a stronger position than France, though, given that the western Mediterranean country holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of 2023.

In any case, Rosana Morillo and Héctor Gómez are not comfortable with the current situation, and are prepared to take action to try to change it.

Sra Morillo held what has been described by Spain's government as 'an important meeting' with the UK Foreign Office's director of Consular Affairs and Crises, Jennifer Anderson, in which they raised the issue of the '90-day rule' and 'discussed plans to work closely together' over the coming tourism season.

How crucial is the UK to Spain?

Although official figures are not up to date, it is estimated that the number of British nationals who own holiday homes in Spain far exceeds the number of British citizens who live there permanently.

The latter, around 400,000, is far from being the largest national group among the immigrant community, but is consistently the second- or third-largest European group, in a list normally topped by Romania and where the UK frequently ties with Germany.

In tourism terms, Britain's presence in Spain has a much greater impact than in immigration terms: From January to September 2023 inclusive, over 13 million holidaymakers from Britain travelled to Spain, being 14.6% more than in the same months in 2022.

That year, British tourists spent a total of €17 billion in Spain, accounting for nearly €1 in every €5 shelled out by foreign holidaymakers in the country.

By the close of September this year, still with three months left of 2023, British visitors had spent almost €15.9bn – a rise of 15% on the same period in 2022 and of 7% on that of 2019, the last 'normal' year before Covid and still a record one for Spain.

“The UK is our main market in terms of numbers of tourists and spending in destination, a market that continues to grow and which has left behind the uncertainties of Brexit and the pandemic,” Gómez said.

“Additionally, our forecasts show that there is still a huge margin for this market to grow.”

Keeping them coming

Spain's presence at the World Travel Market (WTM), with its 3,716 pavilions this year, involved launching and promoting incentives for Britons to carry on taking their holidays in a country where they are a solid, mature market.

The national tourism brand, Turespaña, unveiled an ambitious campaign focused on tax-free shopping for visiting British citizens, with the aim of 'reinforcing the image of Spain as a high-level destination with a vast offer of products and a drive to invest in social tourism', defined as 'exporting our culture' and 'exchanging experiences'.

This is just a part of what was showcased at the WTM to encourage Brits to holiday in Spain – but tourism bosses in the country also wanted to focus on making it easier for them to get there.

During the round of meetings with key UK-based tour operators, Gómez and Sra Morillo discussed opening new flight paths between the two countries.

According to global travel data organisation OAG, planned airline connections in 2024 will see flights to Spain taking off from 27 British airports, and flights to the UK from 31 Spanish terminals.