FOOD,DRINK & TRAVEL Brit Tax

Spain wakes up to threat the EU’s new ETIAS tourist tax poses to its British tourism

RYANAIR is ramping up its flights to Malaga for the coming summer in anticipation of a bumper tourist season on the Costa del Sol.

The airline is set to offer flights to Malaga from 84 destinations in Europe, including six new cities, and increase frequencies on 25 routes.

The six new destinations include Belfast with three flights a week, and Newquay, Bremen, Paderborn, Frankfurt Hahn, and Gdansk with two.

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The Irish airline is also offering five new routes for the summer season out of Sevilla as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations of having a base in the capital of Andalucia.

Sevilla will now be linked to Cork (Ireland), Nuremberg and Weeze (Germany), Prague (Czech Republic) and Santander.

ALARM bells have started to ring in Spain over a new EU tourist tax that is set to hit the nation’s number one customer - the Brits. The tax, known as the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), will see all nonEU tourists handing over €7 to enter the Schengen zone.

Juan Molas, the president of Spain’s Tourism Board, has expressed concern that it will hit the country's

By Walter Finch

competitiveness as a tourist destination when it is due to come into effect in November.

“We will contact the EU to learn more about this tax and how it will directly impact British tourism, which, with 18 million visitors, was our main source of travellers to Spain in 2019,” he said.

Much of the ETIAS tax

Cruise wave

is shrouded in mystery, with many details, such as how it will be applied and where the money raised will go, unknown. Its claimed purpose is to provide the EU with greater control over who is entering its borders and is designed to track or halt criminals and undesirables.

MSC CRUISES, the third largest cruise company in the world by number of passengers, expects to bring more than 100,000 cruise passengers to each of the ports of Malaga Alicante and Valencia this summer.

The company ramping up its presence in Spain, with with MSC Cruises ships forecast to make more than 500 turnarounds or transit calls in Spain at Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Cadiz and Tarragona, which translates into a total of more than two million tourists.

Visa

The tax is likened to the ETSA tourist visa that the United States issues to foreign travellers, and will likely function in the same way. Brits who are unaware of the new requirement will be able to complete the ETSA form at the airport and most people will receive confirmation in minutes. But for those whose checks are more complex, there could be waits of up to 96 hours.

FORBES magazine has chosen Malaga as the best city in the world as an alternative to the big capitals.