- After three months, the state of emergency ended on 21 June; borders with the rest of the EU reopened, as did travel between Spanish regions.
- The “new normal” was not a return to the earlier situation but an intermediate stage with specific health rules.
- A contingency plan is only useful if it is practised: clear owners, regular review and drills.
After three months, the state of emergency ended on 21 June 2020. Borders with the rest of the EU reopened and travel between Spain’s autonomous regions was restored. What came to be called the “new normal” began, a stage in which economic life returned to a more ordinary regime, though with specific health rules.
For many it was a relief after weeks of intense restrictions; for companies, it was also the moment to move from urgency to planning. The questions were no longer only how to hold out, but how to operate under different rules, with uncertain demand and with the possibility that the situation might worsen again. It was the start of a phase in which prudence remained necessary. Reopening the map did not mean lowering the guard in risk management.
The end of an exceptional situation
The state of emergency is the legal instrument that allows the government to limit rights and activities in extraordinary circumstances. Its end, after three months, returned economic life to a more ordinary regime, though with specific health rules. The “new normal” was not a return to the earlier situation, but an intermediate stage.
That difference matters. With the end of the state of emergency the most general restrictions disappeared, but companies still had to meet requirements on hygiene, distances and capacity, and the authorities kept tools to act if the situation called for it. Anyone who read the end of the exceptional regime as a complete return to normal risked adjusting forecasts badly and underestimating costs that would continue to exist. Understanding what had changed and what had not was the basis of any reasonable decision in those weeks.
An uncertain summer
With European borders reopened and travel between regions restored, tourism could again drive the economy. But nobody knew with what intensity. The “new normal” brought an uncertain summer for tourism, with demand hard to predict and the risk of fresh outbreaks. For tourism, a summer like that was both an opportunity and an unknown.
For businesses that depend on the season, planning without certainties calls for flexible decisions: hiring in stages, adjusting purchases to real demand, keeping room for manoeuvre in cash and communicating clearly to customers the booking and cancellation conditions. Uncertainty is not removed, but it can be managed with simple rules and with the most recent information. It also helps to have clear scenarios: what will be done if the season is good, average or poor.
From a document to a procedure
For companies the lesson was practical: contingency plans, which many kept in a drawer, had to become living procedures. A plan nobody has rehearsed, with no clear owners and not updated with regulatory changes, fails just when it is needed. Reviewing it, assigning roles and simulating a new shutdown helps to react in time. The difference between having a plan and practising it shows in the first minutes of a crisis.
A good plan answers concrete questions: who decides, who communicates, which activities are prioritised, how cash is protected, who to talk to at the bank and the insurer, and what information on customers and suppliers must be accessible from anywhere. It is worth reviewing at least once a year and whenever regulations or the company’s structure change, and simulating it with the team to detect flaws before they are real. The plans that work best are simple ones, understood by everyone and accessible when needed.
A contingency plan is only useful if it is practised.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
