Tourism is one of the main industries in Spain. To guarantee the safe reopening of all activities, the Secretary of State for Tourism, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, has prepared guidelines with measures to reduce the spread of the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus in the tourism sector. They include service, cleaning and disinfection, maintenance and risk management specifications for the different sub-sectors and activities of the tourist value chain.

So far, 12 guides have been published with guidelines and recommendations for: hotels and vacation rental apartments, restaurants, travel agencies, golf courses, rural hostels, spas, museums, tourist guides, information offices, hostels, camping sites and active tourism.

There are eight others that are pending validation by the Ministry of Health. These are guides regarding: protected natural spaces, nautical sports facilities and nautical activities, nightlife, amusement and leisure parks, tourist transportation, visits to wineries and other industrial facilities, cultural, historical and natural places, singular public spaces, and beaches.

The different Autonomous Regions  the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), social agents, each sub-sector’s associations, the Spanish Association of Workplace Accident Prevention Services (AESPLA) and other experts have participated in its preparation.

These guides provide guidelines for the tourism sector to restart its activity again with maximum safety, offering confidence to travelers. They complete the measures provided for by the orders of the Ministry of Health and, in any case, are subject to them.

It is expected that, shortly, the technical specification guides will become UNE standards and, subsequently, they will be presented to the ISO TC 228 Committee ‘Tourism and related services’ so that they can begin processing as ISO standards.

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Sandra Bernardo

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