This Monday, December 2, the mandatory registration of travelers that will affect travel agencies, hotels and car rental companies will come into force. Although this regulation is within the framework of the royal decree approved in 2021 and active since 2022, it will be now when its compliance will become mandatory, which has generated a strong rejection among the main associations of the tourism sector.
A registry to reinforce security
The Ministry of the Interior defends this regulation as a necessary update to guarantee security in the country. The law aims to provide more accurate information, especially for law enforcement agencies, and updates a system that, until now, depended on obsolete records dating back to 1959 for overnight stays and 1974 for car rentals. Not only hotels, hostels and campsites will have to join the system, but also tour operators, digital platforms and car rental companies without drivers. All of them will have to transmit to the ses.hospedajes application personal data of their clients, such as names, ID, nationality and details of the transactions. The Ministry has defended the requirements of this registry, stating that they do not introduce new information requirements with respect to the information already collected and underlining its importance in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.
Rejection from the sector
Travel agencies, represented by associations such as Ceav, Fetave, Acave and Unav, have raised their voices against this regulation. They claim that the system adds an unsustainable bureaucratic burden, especially for the small and medium-sized companies that make up 95% of the sector. The need to manage more data could, they argue, prolong working times, raise operating costs and even lead to closures. The Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations (Cehat), which considers that the new system represents an unjustified administrative overload, has added its voice to this criticism. Hoteliers have announced that they are considering legal action to challenge this measure.
Data and results
So far, 61,540 hotel establishments, 1,094 travel agencies and 1,720 car rental companies have already contributed more than 4.7 million data to the system. This registry has made it possible to locate 18,584 people with active police requests, within the framework of investigations related to terrorism, organized crime and other serious crimes.
