Spanish tourism industry threaten to take government to court over ‘very damaging’ registration system

A travel agency association in Mallorca says they will consider resorting to legal action against the Spanish government if changes are not made to the controversial traveller registration system, which they argue could be “very damaging” to the tourism industry.

At a Tuesday meeting in Palma on the Spanish island of Mallorca, the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation and the Business Group of Balearic Travel Agencies (Aviba) backed a call to take Spain’s Ministry of the Interior to court if changes are not made to the new traveller registration system, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reported.

On 26 November, the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations (CEHAT) also announced they would also be considering possible legal action against the traveller registration system due to the lack of response they’ve had on the government and the negative impact they say it will have on the hotel sector.

The new Spanish law, aimed at improving security, requires the collection of extensive information from holidaymakers.

The new accommodation rules that took effect on Monday 2 December include a list of personal data required for everyone aged 14 or above, including names, passport numbers, home addresses and contact details to name a few.

Pedro Fiol, the president of Aviba, is hoping that a ministerial order will soon follow which will correct what they believe are “errors” in the registration system.

"If it does not, we will have no choice but to resort to legal action," he said according to the local publication.

Fiol added that this order should comply with the requests of the tourism industry, stressing that Aviba will take action if even one of its members is sanctioned.

The Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad (State Secretariat for Security) is concerned about the safety of Spanish citizens, so they want to keep tabs on who is staying in the country and cross-check personal details against databases of “persons of interest”.

It says: “The greatest attacks on public safety are carried out by both terrorist activity and organised crime, in both cases with a marked transnational character.”

The government says foreigners are involved in “terrorist threats and other very serious crimes committed by criminal organisations”.

Despite this, CEHAT has argued that “real criminals” will always find a way of staying without leaving a trace.

Jorge Marichal, president of CEHAT said in a recent statement that instead “the measure, therefore, unloads its weight on ordinary travellers and generates a monumental administrative burden that falls on the employees of the accommodations, who are neither police officers nor security experts.”

“Hotels are not police stations. Receptions are not border posts. And receptionists should not be interrogators trained in the secret services."

He also voiced his concerns with the data once it is collected.

“What could go wrong with three years of stored data?” he said. “Surely no hacker, anywhere on the planet, will think: “Wow, this is an all-you-can-eat buffet .” Is this the ‘security’ they promise us?”

He added that “instead of remembering Spain as the country of sun, joy, gastronomy and culture, [tourists] will remember it as the ‘kingdom of the form’”.

The Ministry of the Interior told The Independent that the new regulation respects Spanish and European legislation on data protection and has been endorsed by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) and by the Council of State.

They also said that Spain is one of the safest destinations in the world, but the implementation of the registry further reinforces citizen security.

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