Holidaymaker data registration requirement puts Spain's tourism sector on a war footing

As of 2 December, holiday accommodation throughout the country, plus other businesses such as car rental and travel agencies, will have to comply with new regulations

M. Navarrete / B. Abril

Almeria

Friday, 4 October 2024, 16:33

Spain's tourism sector is joining forces with the employers' associations at a national level against the new regulation that will require the registration of tourists staying in hotels, contracting a trip with an agency or renting a car.

As of 2 December, when the last extension to the entry into force of Royal Decree 933/2021 expires, holiday accommodation throughout the country, among other tourism subsectors such as car rentals, travel agencies, intermediary platforms, campsites or holiday homes, will have to comply with new requirements such as collecting a series of unofficial data that do not appear in the documents provided by tourists (ID card and passport), such as method of payment, credit card number, mobile phone number or home address.

The Almeria hotel and catering employers' association, in line with the Spanish confederation of hotels and tourist accommodation (CEHAT) of which it is a member, has raised alarm bells over the security loopholes in the new regulation, which will make it compulsory to register all tourists over the age of fourteen (until now the obligation began at sixteen) and ask them for a long list of information including full address, telephone numbers, email address, relationship between travellers, dates of stay and details of the means of payment.

Chaos

This information must then be reported by the establishment to the Spanish government, as well as to the National Police and Guardia Civil through a platform designed by the government which, according to the professionals, does not work properly.

The organisation believes the system will cause "chaos" and "generate a threat of large fines to all those who do not act under new parameters", which in their opinion "are unfulfillable and illegal".

The system "will cause the certain loss of sensitive information about tourists and an increase in responsibility for unverifiable data," say CEHAT members. The organisation brings together all types of regulated Spanish accommodation and represents 51 national, provincial, regional and associations, including the Almeria-based employers' association.

A major problem for agencies

Professionals complain that it is impossible to automate the process and that it would imply "added and disproportionate manual work for the establishments and a considerable increase in errors".

"For the agencies it is a major problem, it is a situation that overwhelms us. We don't have the capacity to send so much data and we have no way of checking that it is real, the bad guy is not going to tell you the truth", explained Juan Peláez, one of the spokespersons for the Andalusian federation of travel agencies, the umbrella organisation for the entire sector in the region.

He also said that in Almeria - as in the rest of the region - the sector is mainly made up of small companies. "This documentation process would generate so much work that we don't have the capacity to take it on," Peláez pointed out. CEHAT has addressed the government to demand the revision and adjustment of the regulations, saying that there is "widespread confusion regarding what data is required and how to submit it". In Andalucía they have also asked for mediation from the regional government.

The travel agencies of Almeria have requested the support of the Junta de Andalucía and a petition is being submitted to the interior ministry asking for agencies to be exempt from complying with these new obligations. The regulation also generates unnecessary duplication, as the same data is required from hoteliers, they say.

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