Spain's hotel industry could soon see relief from the low-demand environment induced by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Spanish hoteliers noticed U.K. travelers' reservations for the 2021 summer season skyrocketed after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the current ban on non-essential foreign travel by British citizens would be lifted on May 17.

Spain is the most popular vacation destination for British travelers, but after the pandemic struck, British tourists plummeted from 18 million in 2019 to just more than 3 million in 2020, according to tourism numbers from the Spanish government. Tourism is one of Spain’s most important economic sectors, accounting for more than 12% of Spain’s gross domestic product and employing 2.6 million people.

Antonio Mayor, owner of Benidorm-based Port Hotels, said the booking boom is “the biggest surge in reservations that we’ve seen in the history of Spanish tourism, so it’s great news.”

Ramon Estalella, the secretary general of industry group Spanish Association of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation, referred to by its Spanish initials CEHAT, said the effects from lifting the U.K. travel restrictions are already present.

“The Spanish hotel sector welcomes the announcement that the British will be able to travel, and we’re seeing the effect as there is a huge rise in the number of bookings,” Estalella said.

The U.K. has a two-week quarantine on travelers returning from Spain and other countries, and following the discovery of a more infectious strain of the virus in the U.K. late last year, Spain prohibited entry by U.K. citizens unless they have Spanish residency status.

But Spanish hoteliers said they are now more optimistic because of the U.K. opening up international travel, the rollout of vaccines and efforts by governments to come up with a safe travel system for fueling the jump in bookings reported by tour operators and travel agents.

“We know there’s a huge demand to travel, with demand for Greece, Spain and Turkey from July onwards the most booked overnight, with bookings up 500%,” said Andrew Flintham, managing director for the U.K. and Ireland at major tour operator TUI.

This news does not mean hotels will reopen overnight, Port Hotels' Mayor said.

"It’s still too early to say if all of the 11 hotels in our chain will open up," he said. "Certainly, the two we have in Valencia near the airport and a trade-fair venue will not open right away as there are few flights right now and no events for the foreseeable future. But we’ll definitely be considering the opening of the hotels in the beach resorts of Benidorm, Calpe and Denia."

Mayor, who is also president of HOSBEC, the regional hotel association covering the Mediterranean provinces of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia, said 90% of the organization's member hotels are closed, and he warned a mass reopening could pose its own problems.

“If British travel resumes and all the hotels here open at once, we’ll see a price war which won’t benefit any of the operators after such a long period of being shut down,” he said.

British-based budget airline and tour operator EasyJet said it received a boost in bookings “within hours” of Johnson’s announcement, with flight reservations for the summer up 337% and package holidays rising 630%. The front runners included Spanish beach destinations Málaga, Alicante and Palma.

Dominique Carayon, owner and general manager of boutique Hotel San Roque on Tenerifé in the Canary Islands, said he was thrilled at the news but taking a wait-and-see attitude before celebrating.

“At the moment, tour operators we work with are telling us there is a boost in interest for the coming months, but we haven’t seen any actual bookings so far," Carayon said. "So it’s more expectation than reality, and I think people will wait a few more weeks to see if Britain actually opens up travel abroad for the summer.

“Maybe after Easter we’ll see something concrete regarding bookings for the summer, which in any case is not our big season for British guests as they usually come in the autumn, winter and spring when they account for about 45% of the clientele. But this is certainly not a normal year, and with all this pent-up demand after the long lockdown in Britain, this summer could actually turn out to be fantastic."

Elsewhere in Europe, the European Union agreed to a digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate designed to ease travel inside the 27-member bloc, which should be available by this summer. Spain, Greece and Italy — all heavily dependent on tourism — pushed for such certification, the details of which still have to be worked out.

Even if the digital scheme is not implemented, Spanish Secretary of State for Tourism Fernando Valdés said Madrid is hoping to hammer out an agreement on a similar passport or safe-travel green corridors with non-EU countries such as the U.K.

“Right now we have discussions with our colleagues in the [U.K.],” he said. “For us the British market is our main market. But obviously since we are a member of the [EU], the solutions have first to be part of the discussions in the EU.”

Gabriel Escarrer, CEO of Meliá Hotels International, said he welcomes all efforts to open up travel.

“It has too often been the tourism sector that has suffered due to indiscriminate restrictions whether through border closures, quarantines, etc., that have caused unparalleled damage to our industry and our country’s economy as a whole,” he said.

The negotiations are key to the health of the Spanish hotel industry, said Inmaculada Ranera, managing director for Spain and Portugal at business advisory Christie & Co.

“We really need these talks to succeed,” she said. “Britain and Germany are the main feeder markets for Spain, which still appears to be the preferred destination for many northern Europeans. So the dramatic increase in bookings which came immediately after Johnson’s announcement came as no surprise. Also important to a return to health for the hotel industry is that Spain be perceived as safe regarding the virus, and while the vaccination distribution is not going as fast as it could, it is improving."

Ranera added there are indications business travel to Spain might pick up, too, with several trade shows and conventions already planned for the summer in Barcelona, including the Mobile World Congress, one of the global tech industry’s biggest events.