Addressing WTM Virtual on Wednesday (11 November), Negueruela said the focus of the islands’ authorities was to "build back confidence in the destination".

He said the public and private sectors were working together with tourism organisations in the UK, such as Abta, to establish new protocols to make UK-Balearic travel as safe as possible.

However, Negueruela also acknowledged the travel and tourism sector would likely have to "learn to live" with Covid until a vaccine is rolled out.

Negueruela said the islands, which welcome around 20% of all UK visitors to Spain annually, had, like other destinations, been "impacted heavily" by the Covid crisis.

"We know our islands are valued in the United Kingdom for our tourism proposition in terms of proximity, air connections, tourism infrastructure, quality, price and climate, among other things," he said.

"But now our focus is to build back the confidence in the destination. This includes illustrating the measures being adopted to guarantee visitors’ and residents’ health and wellbeing and ongoing work with our public and private sector partners, as well as tourism bodies in the UK such as Abta, to be able to establish safe travel protocols."

Negueruela confirmed the Balearics would push ahead with plans to require arrivals to show evidence of having tested negative for coronavirus prior to their arrival, a move that has now been firmed up by Spain’s ministry of health.

The minister, though, said the government of the Balearic Islands would be "willing to guarantee diagnostic tests for visitors". "We know that until a vaccine is implemented, we must learn to live with the virus, and therefore our ambition is to reduce the infection levels and create safe protocols to allow tourism to resume," said Negueruela.

Balearic president Francina Armengol, meanwhile, confirmed the government’s ambition was to "establish protocols so tourism can resume in a safe way by March 2021".