Spain imposes new travel security regime
As of yesterday, Spain requires that Spain-bound travelers provide the same personal information and travael plans the U.S. has required since 2004; travel industry anxious
Planning on flying to Spain for a holiday this summer? You may want to take into consideration new security measures the Spanish government introduced yesterday, requiring that everyone traveling by air to Spain should provide personal details to their airline. The Daily Mail reports that the measures will allow Spanish authorities to identify potential terrorists before they touch down in the country. Passengers will have to give their name, date, and place of birth and passport number. The information must then be sent to Spanish authorities before the aircraft is allowed to leave for Spain.
Trouble is, different European airlines have announced different ways to deal with the new Spanish stipulation, leading travel and hospitality officials to worry about confusion and chaos. Some airlines will collect the information at check-in while others will do so when the booking is made. Other airlines are providing an online form in which customers can provide the advance passenger information (API) with ease. Anyone who refuses to give their extra details may be refused permission to travel.
Spain, by the way, is Britain’s biggest holiday destination with some 12.5 million visitors a year, ahead of France on 9 million and the United States on 4 million.
The Spanish regulations say that an airline could be fined up to 60,000 euros per flight if it fails to gather and supply the personal information which is required before take-off. The Spanish authorities say, however, that the new regime will not be strictly enforced.
The new security regime is similar to the one introduced for travellers to the United States in 2004, which resulted in long delays on both sides of the Atlantic. The travel industry does not like either set of security measures, saying that new anti-terror security checks and searches are already causing long delays. Industry sources say that they they are especially angry that airport authorities do not respond to new security measures by appointing the number of security guards which are needed to carry out the checks at a fast enough pace. Chairman of the Institute of Travel & Tourism, Steven Freudmann said: “The customer is being short-changed….The airport experience is dreadful. We don’t want a reduction in security, but we want 40 security gates, not four.”
David Speakman, chairman of the giant Travel Counsellors independent travel agent group, warned: “The industry must insist with one voice that airports look at improving their security processes. Otherwise they will unwittingly deliver to the terrorists the gridlock of travel that they so crave. This should be an opportunity for airports to show how good they are, but they seem to be wallowing in their own mediocrity.”
Michael: The following should be in a blue box
U.S. security and the tourism industry
Note that last Friday, former DHS secretary Tom Ridge said that the federal government needs to adjust its policies for attracting visitors to the United States, acknowledging that some security programs put in place by Congress and the Bush administration after 9/11 have a chilling effect on the U.S. tourist industry. Travel to the United States has declined 17 percent since 2001, costing the United States more than $100 billion in lost visitor spending, about 200,000 jobs and $16 billion in lost tax receipts.
