* UK advises against travelling to Canary and Balearic
islands
* Sanchez says epidemiological data does not back quarantine
move
* UK's transport minister cuts short own Spanish holiday
(Updates with Sanchez, new UK decision)
By Joan Faus and Belén Carreño
MADRID, July 27 (Reuters) - Britain made a mistake when it
decided at the weekend to slap a quarantine on people travelling
from Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, saying
most of the Mediterranean country had a lower coronavirus
infection rate than the UK.
Sanchez was speaking just after Britain dealt a new blow to
any hopes of reviving Spain's tourism by extending guidance
advising against all non-essential travel, which already applied
to mainland Spain, to include the Balearic and Canary Islands.
"The error is to have looked at the incidence (of the virus)
in the country as a whole," Sanchez said in an interview with
Telecinco television.
The rebound in cases is focused in two regions, Catalonia
and Aragon, while "in the rest of the territories, the incidence
is much lower, (lower) even than that of the United Kingdom," he
said.
Last year, Britons made up over a fifth of foreign visitors
to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism.
The Socialist prime minister said the British government had
given Spain no heads up about the quarantine move.
Nevertheless, both teams are in touch and Madrid is trying
to persuade British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government to
change its mind, Sanchez said, adding that the two governments
were "friends".
But the latest British move, announced shortly before
Sanchez's evening interview, did not bode well for Spain's
chances of getting the British government to change tack any
time soon.
While Madrid was focusing its efforts on getting the
Balearic and Canary Islands, which have a low coronavirus rate,
off the quarantine list, London instead decided to add them to
its guidance advising against all non-essential travel.
Earlier on Monday, Spain's hard-hit hotels had offered to
pay for foreign tourists to take coronavirus tests, in an effort
to lure back visitors worried by a fresh wave of cases and put
off by Britain's sudden imposition of a two-week quarantine.
Since ending its nationwide lockdown a month ago, Spain has
been grappling with a rapid proliferation of new cases.
The Health Ministry reported 6,361 new cases over the
weekend and said it was monitoring 361 clusters around the
country.
With most new infections concentrated in Catalonia and
Aragon and with several other regions having a lower infection
ratio than Britain, the blanket quarantine has been criticised
by tourism groups as disproportionate and impulsive.
Britain's transport minister cut short his own holiday in
Spain to return home to handle the fallout.
"The sooner I get back from Spain myself, the sooner I can
get through quarantine," Grant Shapps said on Monday.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Nathan Allen, Belén Carreño and Joan
Faus; Additional reporting by Inti Landauro, Paola Luelmo,
Costas Pitas; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Gareth
Jones and Peter Cooney)
International Airlines (IAG)
