Tourists Need To Pay Very Close Attention To Spain's Latest Travel Law

Spain offers so much variety for travelers, from its pristine coastline and beaches, vibrant cities, and world-class museums to its captivating must-visit wine regions, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. But before you jet off to the land of flamenco and paella, you should inform yourself about the country's new tourism-related regulation, Royal Decree 933/2021. This law — the first of its kind in a European country — went into effect on December 2, 2024and requires all travelers (including Spanish citizens) to share additional personal information when renting a vehicle or checking into a hotel, Airbnb, campsite, or other accommodation. Travelers aged 14 and over must now provide the following: full name, gender, nationality, passport number, date of birth, home address, landline and mobile phone number, and email address. Those traveling with minors under the age of 14 must also explain the nature of their relationship with the children.  

Travel businesses must then share this information along with their method of payment with the Spanish Ministry of the Interior and maintain a record of these details for three years.  The reason for doing all this is to enable the Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad (State Secretariat for Security) to better protect Spanish citizens from international terrorism and organized crime. By comparing traveler details with information stored in their tracking databases, the government says it can more effectively combat illicit activities, including those of transnational crime networks. 

It may be possible for travel businesses to collect the required information online during the reservation process, but if an intermediary, such as Booking.com, is used to make the reservation, privacy laws may prevent this. In this case, you may have to furnish the personal details via pen and paper when you arrive at your destination — at the car rental counter or when checking into accommodations — which may result in slower transaction times and longer lines.  As the travel industry adjusts to the new requirements, processes for collecting the additional information should become more streamlined and organized. Let's hope so, anyway. 

The sharing of sensitive personal information in this manner also raises concerns about privacy and data security issues. This is a legitimate concern for both travelers who are sharing personal information and the travel companies who will be tasked with safeguarding it for three whole years. The ways this will happen and who will bear the costs remains to be seen. However, it may be pointless to swim against the current, as collecting more detailed kinds of traveler information is becoming the new normal in the travel world. As just one example, the EU is upgrading its entry and exit system and will soon begin collecting biometric data (e.g., photographs and fingerprints) for non-EU nationals entering 29 different EU countries for short visits.