Fernando Valdes told Sky News that Covid-19 vaccine certificates would “help us” in the reopening of Spain to British visitors this summer.

“We are desperate to welcome you this summer so I think we will be ready here in Spain,” said Valdes.

“Certificates are going to help us. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have tried to put in place different means to help safe tourism.

“Vaccinations have changed a huge deal from what we had last summer.”

Spain is waiting to see what status it is given by the UK government’s new “traffic light” system of restrictions in early May, ahead of the planned resumption of international travel from 17 May.

Valdes added that Spain hoped to reach a “mutual agreement” with UK authorities about restarting travel this summer.

“We expect to continue conversations – vaccination is going to give us new means of helping travellers,” he said. “Safe tourism is key in this matter.”

June hope

While Valdes said Spain was “thinking about a corridor” with the UK, he also stressed the importance of agreement being reached with the European Commission to allow travel to restart across the 27 member states and other European nations.

“We should be reaching agreement, not only between member states but also with third parties such as the UK,” he added. “We all believe the UK has to have proper treatment and agreement with us.

“If we reach this kind of agreement, then from the month of June we will be able to have a summer.”

Valdes said that while Spain still had restrictions in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the country’s vaccination programme had now seen 10 million people receiving at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.

He added that Covid restrictions were set to be eased in Spain next month.