On Monday, Spain's new rules for registering traveller information came into effect. But the system couldn't cope. It crashed.
The president of the Aviba Balearic association of travel agencies, Pedro Fiol, said: "It was chaos. It hardly ever worked during the test period".
Aviba are advising members to take screenshots of website errors, bearing in mind that there are fines for non-compliance - as high as 30,000 euros. "It is very important that we can prove that the system has not been working and that we have therefore not been able to load the data."
Fiol has been warning of the system's failures for some time; he had predicted that there would be crashes. This warning was not heeded.
In addition, he maintains that the system is very problematic for the travel agency sector and believes it will result in a significant loss of customers. "It is disproportionate and has already had an international impact. We cannot upload data that we don't know."
Conceived as a police instrument against terrorism and organised crime, Fiol argues that it will not succeed in increasing security. "It will neither prevent nor deter any possible attack. Terrorists with names and surnames will not be staying with their faces uncovered in any hotel surrounded by tourists. The measure violates all the principles of privacy of our customers. Europe should act. It will be easier to file a tax return than book a hotel."