The detente ends a showdown that began in summer, when Italy’s interior ministry introduced controls on travelers from Spain after tens of thousands of migrants rushed from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta, in North Africa.
Under an agreement reached at an EU summit in Brussels, Rome’s measures will remain in place for another week so that they lapse at the same time as Madrid’s, according to Italian government sources.
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A view of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain, March 12, 2020. Photo by Reuters |
The deal was struck after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Spain’s Pedro Sanchez held talks on the sidelines of the leaders’ meeting, where migration was on the agenda, a Spanish diplomat said.
Italy and Spain do not share a land border, but passengers arriving on flights had been required to undergo passport checks, which is not normally the case because both countries are members of the Schengen free-travel zone.
Spain, the world’s second most visited country after France, received 12.3 million foreign tourists in August, up 9.2% from a year earlier and the highest total recorded for the month. The increase followed growth of 2.8% in June, when arrivals reached 9.74 million, and 4.6% in July, when 11.53 million visitors arrived.
For the first eight months, Spain received 70.4 million tourists and is on track of welcoming 100 million tourists this year after receiving a record 97 million visitors in 2025.
Italy is one of Spain’s most important international tourism markets.
Data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute show that more than 5.4 million Italian tourists visit Spain annually, making Italy the country’s fourth-largest source market.