President Armengol met the national minister for tourism, Reyes Maroto, in Ibiza on Monday morning. Maroto said that the Balearic and Spanish governments are doing all they can, and "in an accelerated manner", to prevent the UK quarantine requirement from translating into "massive cancellations". "The aim is to remove the quarantine from the islands (Balearics and Canaries) as soon as possible; better today than tomorrow."
The Balearic government had already announced on Sunday that work was under way to establish a safe air corridor with the UK. Maroto noted that this is something with which "the Balearic Islands have already had a successful experience - the corridor that was opened with Germany in June".
Armengol added that this experience "allowed us to offer complete peace of mind" and to show a commitment to ensuring that the Balearics is a safe destination. The president also referred to the contrasts in epidemiological data, with the Balearics having had eight confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks. For Spain as a whole, the figure is 37, with the majority of these cases having been in specific regions, such as Catalonia. In the UK, the figure is 14.5.
Silvia Cano, the Balearic parliament spokesperson for Armengol's PSOE party, said in Palma on Monday that British tourists will be "safer in the Balearics than at home". While considering it "good news" that the UK government had not advised against travel to the Balearics and that tour operators will be continuing to fly to the Balearics, she was nevertheless critical of the UK government's "constant improvisation". Cano noted that the news of the quarantine had even taken ministers on holiday in Spain by surprise.