British holidaymakers will need to prepare for yet another rule they will need to abide by to travel to Majorca from October 1.
The Spanish Government will be introducing a new mandatory register all foreign visitors will need to sign up for upon arriving in Spain.
Hoteliers have warned the requirement will lead to “chaos” while tour operators insisted it will be “impossible” to comply.
They also argued the registry could result in the loss of sensitive information on holidaymakers and a considerable breach of privacy.
Members of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (Cehat) have demanded a meeting with the Spanish Ministry of the Interior to discuss not implementing the new rule.
According to the new regulation, all tourists staying in rented accommodation will need to register with the tourist establishment and their data sent to the Ministry of Interior through a newly-designed platform.
Hoteliers and tour operators have noted the platform has proved to be “very inefficient” so far, making it extremely difficult to transmit the required information.
Cehat slammed the registry as an “incomprehensible” move that would only “cause chaos” and “generate a threat of large fines and sanctions to all those who do not act under the new parameters.”
Members have argued it would be impossible for them to collect and certify information about customers.
They also noted it 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”.
They cited new European Union regulation applying to airlines that allows those companies to collect customer information with no manual input.
“The EU also decided that this data can be collected without companies being obliged to verify it when travelling within the Schengen area,” they said.
The new registry is due to come into force on October 1. Attempts to implement the new rules had to be shelved twice last year.
