Spanish hoteliers are warning of the “chaos” that could be caused by the Ministry of the Interior in Spain with the new obligatory registration of travellers, a regulation that will come into force on October 1 and which, in the opinion of Spanish tour operators, is “impossible” to comply with due to the requirements demanded, causing loss of sensitive information on travellers.
For all these reasons, the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (Cehat) has requested a new meeting with the Secretary of State or the Minister of the Interior and assures that it is currently working at a legal level to prevent its application. On October 27, 2021, a Royal Decree was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) which established documentary registration and information obligations for natural or legal persons carrying out accommodation and motor vehicle rental activities.
After learning of these new obligations established by the regulation, the Spanish tourist industry has warned of the potential chaos that its application could generate and expressed its concern, pointing out that it was impossible to comply with the requirements of the Royal Decree. The regulation imposed new requirements for the registration of travellers staying in tourist establishments, as well as the transmission of this data through a platform designed by the Ministry of the Interior.
Industry chiefs have pointed out that this platform had proved to be “very inefficient”, making the collection and transmission of this data impossible. In response to the protests of the companies, the Ministry decided to extend its entry into force on two occasions (first with an extension until November 2, 2023 and then with an extension until October 1, 2024), allowing the sending of the data through the traditional electronic system.
The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT), which brings together all types of regulated Spanish accommodation and represents 51 associations, considers it “incomprehensible” that the Ministry of the Interior is determined to “cause chaos” and “generate a threat of large fines and sanctions to all those who do not act under the new parameters”.
In its opinion, these new parameters are “unfulfillable and illegal” as they will lead to “the certain loss of sensitive information about travellers and an increase in responsibility for unverifiable data”.
Royal Decree 933/2021 extends the obligations of companies to collect data that are not limited to those appearing on official documents (such as ID card and passport), such as payment methods, financial transaction, contract data, updated address, mobile phone or email of the user, which can only be collected manually.
For hoteliers, it is impossible to collect and certify the authenticity of some of these data, “so this would cause organisational chaos at the reception desk to the detriment of users and in flagrant contravention of the data minimisation rules of European directives and their protection”.
Cehat also recalls that more than 70% of hosting companies are SMEs (small to medium businesses) and micro-SMEs that cannot have sufficient cybersecurity protection to ensure the effective protection of the data collected.
In addition, they claim that the European Union itself decided this July that airlines will only be able to collect data in an automated way, replacing manual methods - which are the ones required by this Royal Decree - by the non-appearance in official documents of many of the required data. “The EU also decided that this data can be collected without companies being obliged to verify it when travelling within the Schengen area”, the hoteliers said.
In view of the immediate entry into force of this Royal Decree on October 1, the hoteliers are calling for a new meeting with the Secretary of State or the Minister of the Interior, which has so far received no response. For this reason, they assure that they have set their legal services in motion to prevent its application.