Chaos reigns on first day of Spain's new 'Big Brother' tourist registration system as government's web platform hit by glitches

Chaos has ensued as hotels, car rental companies and travel agencies in Spain attempted to register more personal information about their customers to central government as new tourism laws came into effect on Monday 2 December. Businesses were required by the new law to provide more than 40 pieces of 'Big Brother' personal information to the ministry of interior's SEShospedajes platform, however, it did not work.

This was pointed out by Javier Hernandez, vice president of the Costa del Sol hoteliers association (Aehcos) who said the web platform stopped working at 11.59pm, seconds before the new decree came into effect. The site, which requires some hotels to add in 26 more pieces of personal data than before, continued to not be active as the clock ticked into Monday, he said.

Hernández said that as it was not working, businesses were not been able to register in order to communicate the data they are obliged to. Businesses that do not comply with the rules face fines of between 3,000 and 30,000 euros. "This website cannot be accessed," was the message that repeatedly cropped up when people tried to gain access to the government platform to fill in the new registration requirements.

The new requirements are part of a new decree which is being brought in for national security reasons, with the ministry of interior adding that the biggest attacks on the public are carried out by both terrorists and organised crime. In both cases, acquiring accommodation and rental vehicles, usually done online, are crucial to their criminal plans.

The tourism sector has criticised the new law and is even considering legal action against the ministry of the interior. Even tourists have pushed back against the new regulations, with many refusing the request for extra personal pieces of information. "We have guests who refuse to provide some of the obligatory information, such as bank account numbers or family relationships with the minors they are staying with," Hernández said.

Andalusian regional minister of tourism Arturo Bernal said: "the new register of tourists violates the privacy of those who visit Andalucía, affects our tourist competitiveness and has been imposed without listening to the sector. We firmly reject it".

Among the incidents of the first day of the new law coming into effect, Aehcos pointed out they also experienced problems with the guest management systems used by the hotels as the suppliers warn it will take up to six months to establish these new parameters based on the more than 40 pieces of information now required by the central government. "As a result, we can confirm that some hotel establishments are taking more than 15 minutes to record every single piece of information about the tourists staying in the establishments," Hernández said.

In travel agencies, which until now were not obliged to transfer any data, the first day was "crazy", according to the president of the association of travel agencies of the Costa del Sol, Sergio Garcia. "This decree is nonsense and it is unreasonable that every time a customer wants to make a reservation you have to collect more than 40 pieces of data when this operation will then be repeated at the hotel reception or in the car rental if they go to rent the vehicle," he said. The regulation violates the data protection law and the federation is looking into legal action against the ministry of the interior, Garcia added.

The same sentiments are echoed among car rental agencies, with the new law requiring them to send to the government a customer's number plate and vehicle identification number if that customers books a rental vehicle three months in advance. "It is ridiculous when we are delivering cars according to the available fleet on a daily basis," car rental agency owners pointed out, while adding that tourists are the first to be surprised that they are asked for so much information.

Under the new law, another major change is that the data will now be sent directly to the ministry of the interior, whereas until now it was sent to National Police or Guardia Civil. "We understand that the ministry of the interior and the police need control mechanisms to fight crime and terrorism, but this is no argument for demanding by decree that thousands of companies be thrown into administrative chaos and the uncertainty of being fined when it is impossible to comply with the new obligations of the documentary register of tourists," said Carlos Abella, secretary general of the Mesa del Turismo.

"The update of this decree stipulates that accommodation companies, car rental companies and intermediary tour operators will have to provide information on clients telematically at a level of detail that they do not have for the documentation of reservations and ID cards, nor is it fully understood that it is their role to collect it, yet there are penalties of up to 30,000 euros in case of infringement," he added.

Activities and data

The new rules apply to companies or individuals who carry out services such as operating accommodation or vehicle rental agencies. Accommodation activities are those carried out, whether professionally or not, for the purpose of providing, in exchange for a fee, a room or space for overnight stay to people. This ranges from hotels, hostels, guesthouses and rural tourism establishments to campsites and caravan parks.

Meanwhile, car rental activities include facilitating third parties by renting out any vehicle for a specific period of time in exchange for a fee. Excluded from the provisions of this section is the hire of auto taxis and the hire of vehicles with a driver.

The new rules also include tour operators that provide intermediation services between travel businesses and tourists, and the activity of digital platforms dedicated, for a fee or free of charge, to intermediation in these activities.

From now on, at each check in, tourists will need to record their name; surname; sex; identity document number; document support number; type of document (ID card, passport, TIE); nationality; date of birth; place of habitual residence including full address, town and country; landline and mobile phone number; email; number of tourists and relationship between tourists in the event that any of them are minors.

Businesses must also send the ministry of the interior details of the transaction, such as the contract (reference number, date and signatures), contract execution data (date and time of entry and date and time of exit) and payment data (type, identification of the payment means such as card type and number, holder of the payment means, card expiry date and date of payment). Until now, tourists only had to provide their name, surname, ID card or passport number and date of issue.

The travel sector is worried about the impact the new requirements will have on tourists and warn that it will have a knock-on effect for the people in Spain. "It is even possible that many tourists feel reluctant to provide certain personal data and prefer to opt for more 'friendly' international destinations for their holidays when booking their tourist services," voices in the sector pointed out. Mesa del Turismo pointed out that "as if all this were not enough, taking into account that personal data and sensitive information is handled, from contact emails to bank cards, there is a high risk of colliding head-on with the data protection act, which is strictly regulated in Spain".