Spain’s new ‘Big Brother’ travel rules are driving tourists to explore other holiday destinations
Spain has introduced new rules requiring rental properties and car rental firms to collect more personal information about their customers, raising privacy concerns and complaints of excessive bureaucracy.
The new system which came into effect on Monday requires hotels, camp sites and other lodgings as well as travel agencies and car rental agencies to provide “specific” information on their customers to the government via a digital platform.
The goal is to boost security and the “fight against terrorism and organised crime”, the interior ministry said in a statement. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 30,000 euros ($31,500), it added.
Hotels and other tourism establishments already had to provide the authorities with the name, email and passport number of their clients but they are now required to collect much more information such as their birthday, telephone number and methods of payment as well.
Many tourism sector bodies consider the requirements excessive. They complain they must collect over 40 pieces of information about their clients when it comes to lodging, and over 60 regarding car rentals.
“We are faced with an unfortunate and incomprehensible decree,” the president of Spain’s Tourism Board, Juan Molas, said in statement.
The Confederation of Spanish Hoteliers and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) said it was concerned about the impact on its members’ businesses and was considering legal action to challenge the rules.
“People’s private lives are not being respected,” the body’s secretary general, Ramon Estalella, said in a video message.
“Requesting this data, transmitting this data, storing it for three years, we believe it is a huge risk for all intents and purposes, especially for the protection of personal data,” he added.
The Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies (CEAV) warned in a letter sent to the tourism and interior ministers that the “disproportionate rule” could scare away tourists, adding many firms cannot afford the cost of the system.
The new rules had been set to come into effect on October 1 but the government pushed back the date to give the industry more time to prepare.
Spain is the second-most visited country in the world after France, with a record 85.1 million foreign visitors in 2023. The sector accounts for 12.8 percent of the country’s economy.
