Barcelona hospitality industry divided over question of Covid passports

Barcelona’s hospitality sector is divided on the possibility of mandatory ‘Covid passports’ to enter establishments.

The city’s restaurants guild would view the measure favourably, while the hotel association would be against it. Bioethics experts also question the measure, while legal experts point out that, as of now, the proposal would have no legal basis to be implemented.

The measure was pioneered in France and adopted by other countries such as Portugal and Italy. 

The Barcelona Restaurants Association would welcome the proposal as they believe it would encourage vaccination and avoid closures as seen across Catalonia in recent months. 

Roger Pallarols of the Barcelona Restaurants Association believes that this would be a good option to control future waves of the pandemic. 

He explained to the Catalan News Agency that if the city is seeing “high incidence levels” and with the acknowledgement that “vaccination is open to everyone,” it would be a measure that would receive the support of the association. 

The head of the guild also believes that such a measure would not negatively impact tourism numbers, but in fact boost the sector, offering "maximum control and safety.” 

In any case, he clarifies that the measure would not be a permanent one, and would just help to “overcome” the pandemic. 

Hotels against the measure

The Barcelona Hotel Guild, on the other hand, is opposed to the introduction of a covid passport. 

Manel Casals, general manager of the association, would prefer to see alternative measures from authorities with the ultimate goal of ensuring the highest possible vaccination rates. 

"In other European countries,” Casals explains to the Catalan News Agency, “people hospitalized with Covid-19 who could have been vaccinated before had to pay for their medical expenses. This seems to be a more appropriate measure, as it does not affect other sectors."

Casals also believes that the mandatory Covid certificate would discourage tourists coming to Catalonia, who would look for other destinations with fewer requirements. 

Skepticism from bioethics

The vice-president of the Bioethics Committee of Catalonia (CBC), Màrius Morlans, explained that the first requirement would be for everyone to have already been offered a vaccine, because otherwise it would be "discrimination." 

He added that it would be necessary to establish mechanisms that also take into account people who cannot be vaccinated, for example due to allergies, and those whose vaccination is delayed because they have had Covid-19 recently. The wait time for those who have recovered from the virus was recently cut down from six months to two. 

While meeting all of these requirements, he still questions the benefit of such a measure, and says he has “serious doubts” about its effectiveness.

No legal basis, say lawyers

So far, some regions in Spain have tried unsuccessfully to implement the mandatory Covid passport to enter establishments. 

In the view of lawyer Jordi Bacaria, founder of Global Legal Data, using the passport pretext to prevent or allow entry has no legal basis at present. He also views the measure as impacting on fundamental rights, as vaccination is not mandatory.

The only way to be able to implement the health pass to access an establishment would be to find some legal basis, which could be framed in the general public interest and the health of people and the workers themselves. 

This type of legal basis, Bacaria warns, should be a rule of law, not an order from a health ministry.