Spain is safe for tourists and Spaniards, the government insisted on Sunday after Britain abruptly imposed a two-week coronavirus quarantine on travellers returning from there, a decision that filled holidaymakers with dismay, Reuters reports.

The Madrid government is also trying to persuade Britain to exclude the Balearic and Canary islands from the quarantine measure, Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said.

She added that the prevalence of the virus in those destinations was much lower than in the United Kingdom.

“Spain is safe, it is safe for Spaniards, it is safe for tourists,” Gonzalez Laya told reporters.

Last year, Britons made up more than a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies on heavily on tourism revenues.

The quarantine, coming just as the Spanish tourism sector emerges from months of lockdowns and travel restrictions, upset the plans of many people either on holiday or planning to take one and caused more disruption for airlines and tour companies.