The Spanish beaches will open this summer with capacity control and the area of ​​sunbeds and umbrellas will also be organized. The person who wants to use them will have to first notify those responsible for the facilities, as is already the case in the hospitality industry, that customers, before sitting on a terrace, must ask the waiter for permission to disinfect tables and chairs.

Therefore, it will not be worth it to get to the beach and lie down under the first umbrella you see. This is reflected in the draft prepared by the Institute of Tourism Quality of Spain (ICTE) in collaboration with communities, municipalities and unions. The document, to which EL MUNDO has had access, contains the guidelines to be applied on all Spanish beaches.

The beach manager (usually the municipalities, although some depend on the management of the Coasts) will prepare a contingency plan to determine what the capacity of the beach is and, based on this, determine the number of people who may be in she. To assess the capacity, the characteristics of the beach will be taken into account. For example, if it has tides it will have less capacity, because at a certain time there will be less space for bathers.

It will also be assessed whether there are spaces enabled for other uses: such as beach bars or playgrounds, for example.

One way to define the capacity of the beach, for example, is to divide the total surface by the minimum safety distance that Sanidad says must be between people or groups. For example, three friends who are under the same umbrella will not have to keep the safety distance between them, but they will have to keep the group next to them.

On the beach it will have to be indicated what the maximum capacity is by means of posters or public address systems. To ensure that there are no more people than allowed, security will be reinforced or even controlled by drones. "It may be necessary to modify the beach security plan, taking into account the result of the risk assessment, the resources available by the managing entity (for example, reorganization of personnel, use of drones, etc.)," ​​says the document.

It will also be ensured that the safety gap is respected when entering and leaving the beach, to avoid collapses. "Differentiated entrances and exits will be established on the beaches in order to ensure interpersonal distance," says the text. If the allowed capacity is exceeded, there are swimmers who will stay out.

The protocol also recommends signaling spaces that can be occupied by users, such as umbrellas or hammocks. It also "should consider how to ensure that beachfront users keep the safety distance from shoreline users."

In short, the beach managers will be in charge of valuing the space they have, the people that fit and how to organize these flows so that a distance is always maintained between people and groups.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

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