Starting 1 October 2024, the Ministry of the Interior in Spain want tourists and visitors to register personal information such as payment details, email addresses and telephone numbers. The tourism and catering sectors are confused and do not know what to do or what to think of all that. 

1 October, that is very soon. It seems accommodation managers – hotels, bed & breakfast spots, camping sites, hostels, … – will be tasked to gather all the personal information the authorities in Spain want.

Not that new(s)?

1 October is soon, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise, contrary to alarmist reports in Het Nieuwsblad, Spanish News Today and the Algemene Nederlandse Vereniging van Reisondernemingen (ANVR) or General Dutch Association of Travel Agencies.

“The Royal Decree 933/2021 of October 26th concerning data sharing obligation in Spain entered into force on January 2, 2023. The Decree establishes the obligations of documentary registration and information of natural or legal persons who carry out lodging and motor vehicle rental activities”, airbnb says. 

The European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operator Associations (ECTAA) also documents the Royal Decree. 

As the numbering of the Royal Decree suggests, the measure dates from 2021, which was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here for the original Hispanophone text. 

Panic?

Anyway, there is some panic now. The Confederación Española de Hoteles y Alojamientos Turísticos (CEHAT) sounded the alarm and issued a press release.

CEHAT : “Opposition, alarm and confusion in Europe over the new Spanish regulation on registering travellers”

The tourist associations of the European Union have joined forces to convey in writing to the Spanish Government the consequences of Royal Decree 933/2021 and to highlight the impossibility of its compliance.

The European tourist associations have sent a letter to various Spanish authorities to convey their concern, confusion and opposition to the imminent entry into force of Royal Decree 933/2021, of October 26, which establishes the documentary and information registration obligations of natural or legal persons who carry out accommodation and motor vehicle rental activities.

With this fact, the European Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (ECTAA), the European Tourism Association (ETOA), the European Federation of Rural Tourism (RURALTOUR) and the European association representing hotels, restaurants, bars and cafes and similar establishments in the European Union (HOTREC) join the protest of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) and the global concern of the Spanish tourism sector regarding this new law that is expected to come into force on October 1, highlighting the impossibility of complying with the requirements demanded by the regulations. 

This is the first time that all the European tourism associations have agreed to show their frontal opposition to the legislation of a country.

CEHAT has expressed its concern regarding the new Royal Decree for some time, conveying its concern on several occasions to the Spanish Government. However, it has not yet received a solution or response.

For its part, the European letter – to which a detailed legal analysis of the concerns of the tourism sector in the Union is attached – speaks of challenges, practices, legal considerations, recommendations and alternatives. 

Likewise, the tourist associations of the EU ask the Spanish Government questions about the new regulations, such as, for example, how the Spanish authorities will avoid duplications with the application of the new law, how these obligations will affect people outside Spain and even within the European Union itself, guarantees in the rights in relation to the portability, rectification and deletion of data… And, as CEHAT pointed out, just two weeks after the entry into force of this regulation, there is widespread confusion at national and international level regarding what data is required and how to send it, something that would supposedly be clarified with the development of a ministerial order of which the Spanish tourism sector is still unaware.

Europe insists that “the decree will impose a significant and unnecessary administrative burden and additional costs on companies (e.g. hotels, travel agencies, tour operators, etc.) by de facto increasing the price of holidays in a highly competitive market”. 

This, they point out, “will lead to an unnecessary duplication of data collection and processing by travel companies”, as well as a “disproportionate administrative burden for travel companies”.

Thus, given the conciliatory spirit of the tourism sector and the mutual interest of the Spanish authorities and the tourism industry to promote, maintain and even increase tourism to Spain, the letter ends by stressing that Europe sincerely hopes that “the competent authorities understand and respond to the main concerns expressed above”.

Dutch response

Travelling to Spain is very popular in the Netherlands and Belgium, so the ANVR its own press release.

Press release: ANVR sounds the alarm against European travel restrictions

The ANVR is sounding the alarm due to a growing number of measures taken by individual European states. The measures in the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain make it more difficult for consumers and business travelers to travel freely in Europe.

The restrictive measures are being taken to combat terrorism, but the question is whether this is effective and it is disproportionate to the inconvenience for travelers. ANVR is asking the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Caspar Veldkamp (NSC) for a meeting and an urgent request to raise the issue in the EU.

Germany reintroduced border controls last week. Checks are carried out at the border. The delays are still reasonable, but experience from the corona period shows that waiting times will increase significantly during busy holiday periods. 

At the beginning of September it was also announced that the United Kingdom will introduce an electronic travel authorization system from April 2025. This ETA for access to the United Kingdom must be applied for in advance and costs 10 British pounds. This even applies to children and babies. British citizens who want to visit the EU for a holiday do not have to apply for or pay anything upon arrival in the EU.

Finally, a decree has been introduced in Spain whereby accommodation and car rental services that are booked and performed in Spain must share a wide list of data with the Spanish authorities in advance from 1 October 2024. 

For a simple overnight stay, a total of more than 40 (!) data must be shared, including bank account numbers, telephone details and passport details of the traveller. Although the measure will come into effect in two weeks, it is completely unclear how this data should be passed on and what guarantees the Spanish government can provide with regard to the privacy of the shared data.

ANVR director Frank Radstake: “With the abolition of border controls at the time, the free travel after the Schengen Treaty was signed, but also with the arrival of the Euro, it has become much easier for travellers to visit family within Europe, enjoy beautiful holidays or make a business trip. The proposed measures are disproportionate and make it a lot more difficult for the traveler.”

The ANVR asks the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take strong action and discuss the proposed measures in the EU. 

“If other countries also take these kinds of measures, we will really go back 30 years in time”, says director Radstake.

Response in Belgium

Het Nieuwsblad sounded out some stakeholders in Belgium. “It’s all still very unclear at the moment. We have to see how we’re going to implement this, because as a tour operator we don’t have all the requested data ourselves. It seems unrealistic to us to have this come into effect on 1 October. Those hotels don’t know what to pass on themselves”, Pol Demeyere, spokesman of TUI België, tells the newspaper.

That the Spanish Government wants to discourage tourism with these rules would surprise Demeyere. “I can’t imagine that they want to do that. In some places there is indeed overtourism, but there are also many regions where they don’t have that problem.”

The Vereniging Vlaamse Reisbureaus (VVR) or Association of Flemish Travel Agencies is looking for answers and has contacted the Spanish Embassy in Brussels. 

Counterterrorism, counter-COVID or counter-overtourism?

The motivation for Royal Decree 993/2021 seems to be counterterrorism. The timing suggests COVID-19 countermeasures. Current affairs suggest countermeasures for overtourism. 

“A third of people in Spain say their local area now has too many international visitors, according to a continent-wide survey that has found most people across Europe are sympathetic to protests against overtourism and back steps to combat it”, John Henley of The Guardian in the UK, writes. The newspaper analysed a YouGov poll. 

The polling in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK found Spain was the country that felt most strongly about the phenomenon, with 32% of respondents saying there were now too many foreign travellers in their area.That number rose to 48% in Catalonia, the region that includes Barcelona, whose 1.6 million residents receive about 32 million visitors annually.

Hacienda

So, what could gathering all this personal information do against overtourism? Well, one can imagine having all this information can be used to penalise you if you are found to cause some troubles. 

Spain is a land of high culture but also of beach and party culture and drunk people are not fun for residents. In Spain or anywhere else in the world.

On Thursday, a colleague who used to work in Spain told me Hacienda, the nickname for the Spanish Tax Administration Agency or Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria (AEAT), commonly known as Agencia Tributaria, sometimes just takes money from your bank account if you don’t pay pup when you should.

Oriol tells me domiciliation (automatic, periodic payments) aren’t as restricted and restrictive in Spain as in Belgium and Tax Administration will block amounts of money you might owe. 

So having your personal banking information could facilitate that. 

So?

But here I’m speculating. It’s unclear what the Spanish Authorities want. We’ll have to wait and see. 

2023 Andalusia Whirlwind Tour

1. PRELUDE | Visiting Gibraltar in 2013.
2. REVIEW | Eurostar Amsterdam – Antwerp – Brussels – Paris in 2023.
3. PARIS | Restaurant Le Train Bleu at the Gare de Lyon.
4. REVIEW | SNCF TGV inOui from Paris-Gare-de-Lyon to Barcelona-Sants.
5. REVIEW | Hotel Barcelo Sants.
6. INTERMEZZO | Spain saw a surge of Belgians visiting in the first quarter of 2024.
7. SPAIN | Renfe Sala Club or Club Lounge at Adif stations.
8. REVIEW | Renfe AVE in Premium from Barcelona-Sants to Córdoba.
9. SPAIN | The Mezquita or Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba.
10. CÓRDOBA | The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos or Castle of the Christian Monarchs.
11. REVIEW | Hotel Eurostars Palace Córdoba.
12. ANDALUSIA | Half a day in Córdoba.
13. TRAINS IN SPAIN | Iryo in Infinita class from Córdoba to Seville.
14. ANDALUSIA | Real Alcázar of Seville.
15. ANDALUSIA | Seville Cathedral or Catedral de Santa María de la Sede de Sevilla.
16. REVIEW | Hotel Posada del Lucero in Seville.
17. ANDALUSIA | Half a day in Seville ft. Plaza de España and Las Setas or Metropol Parasol.
18. TRAINS IN SPAIN | Renfe Avant regional ‘local’ train on high speed lines.
19. GRANADA | The Alhambra and the Generalife.
20. REVIEW | Hotel Catalonia Granada.
21. ANDALUSIA | Granada on Día de la Hispanidad.