Spain travel warning: New 'Big Brother' rules to launch next month affecting all holidaymakers - what personal information will tourists have to give?

The new rules will demand hotels to gather personal data on tourists - including family information, bank cards and addresses - and hand it over to security services. Spanish hotels already ask guests for their ID card or passport details, but the new rules are expected to be the strictest in the EU with up to 31 pieces of personal data collected.

The legislation is set to come into force from Monday (2 December) and will require tour operators, holiday rental platforms and car hire companies to gather data on customers. All the information then has to be uploaded onto a platform for sharing with Spanish security forces.

Spain's interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the rules were necessary to help tackle organised crime. The Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad (State Secretariat for Security) is concerned about the safety of Spanish citizens. It says: “The greatest attacks on public safety are carried out by both terrorist activity and organised crime, in both cases with a marked transnational character.”

The government says foreigners are involved in “terrorist threats and other very serious crimes committed by criminal organisations”. The authorities wants to keep tabs on who is staying where, and cross-check personal details against databases of “persons of interest”.

Ramón Estalella, the head of the country's leading hotel association, Cehat, slammed the rules as draconian. He said: “It's like 'Big Brother' – it's nuts and will cause chaos”.

The group has now launched a legal challenge over the rules, saying that while its members are committed to working with the government on security they have concerns over breaching customers' privacy. It said the obligations could force companies to breach the EU's GDPR data protection legislation.

Hotels could be lumped with fines for doing this, Cehat said, which could exceed the government's proposed fine of 30,000 euros (£25,000) for not complying with the decree. The group has also argued that it could cause considerable delays to people's holidays, for example when they are trying to check in during busy times.

The tourism sector contributes 12 per cent to Spain's GDP, and the move has prompted fears that tourists may chose to go elsewhere if they do no want to hand over their personal details to police. The new accommodation rules that come into effect on Monday 2 December include a list of personal data required for everyone aged 14 or above:

• Full name
• Gender
• Nationality
• Passport number
• Date of birth
• Home address
• Landline phone number (if you have one)
• Mobile phone number
• Email address

While under-14s will not need to provide the information, adults travelling with them must explain the relationship they have with the children.