(Adds tourism minister, Catalonia, Ryanair)
By Emma Pinedo and Nathan Allen
MADRID, July 27 (Reuters) - Spain said on Monday it hoped to
convince Britain to exempt the Balearic and Canary islands from
a sudden quarantine, and other Spanish regions said they also
felt unfairly penalised by the sweeping British move.
Britain on Saturday shocked Madrid, and holidaymakers, with
an unexpected 14-day quarantine on travellers coming from Spain,
citing a sudden jump in COVID-19 cases, in a blow to a tourist
season already hanging on by a thread.
"We are sailing through waters whose maps and
characteristics are unknown to us, what we have to do is to
regain that confidence and that element of security that is
essential for tourist activity", Agriculture Minister Luis
Planas told Antena 3 TV station.
Since ending its nationwide lockdown a month ago, Spain has
been grappling with a rapid proliferation of new cases, with the
infection rate approaching 1,000 a day by the end of last week.
However, with the bulk of new clusters concentrated around
the northeastern regions of Catalonia and Aragon, Britain's
blanket quarantine has been criticised as disproportionate.
While Catalan leader Quim Torra warned on Monday that
stricter restrictions could be needed if the local outbreak
continued to expand, other regions felt they had been unfairly
penalised.
'A BADLY MANAGED OVERREACTION'
"What we'd like is for quarantines to be lifted on the
islands as early as possible, and we hope it will be today
rather than tomorrow," Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said.
Authorities in Andalusia, home to the tourism-dependent
Costa del Sol, and Valencia, which includes the popular Benidorm
resort, were also seeking exemptions.
"Our epidemiological data are better than the UK's,"
Valencian regional leader Ximo Puig told Cadena Ser radio. "I
don't understand why you would make a decision like this with
such a broad brushstroke."
Tour operators, airlines and hotel groups, already
struggling after the pandemic brought global air travel to a
virtual standstill, have also hit back at the measure.
Budget carrier Ryanair's Chief Executive Michael
O'Leary derided the UK move as a "badly managed overreaction".
Melia Hotels and NH hotels shares plunged
around 6% and 5% respectively on Monday morning, while other
tourism related stocks like British Airways parent company IAG
, or the online travel group Edreams Odigeo
shares were down more than 8.5% and 6.6%, respectively.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo
Additional reporting by Inti Landauro and Conor Humphries
Writing by Nathan Allen
Editing by Ingrid Melander and Philippa Fletcher)
International Airlines (IAG)