A new holiday season has arrived. The Imserso Social Tourism Program will launch a new 2024-2025 season in less than a week. Thousands of retirees will be able to enjoy coastal and inland trips, as well as destinations to the islands. This year, Imserso offers the same places as last season: 886,269, of which 50.08% (443,887 places) are intended for tourism on the peninsular coast; 25.96% (230,039) are allocated to island coastal tourism and 23.96% (212,343) are reserved for getaway tourism.
Since August 28, accredited persons have already begun to receive confirmation letters with which they can book their trips within the framework of the Tourist Program. They indicate the exact day on which you can make your reservations. Inside the letter there is a personal code that allows you to make reservations online. Remember to always book through the Social Tourism website or agencies accredited for this purpose. If you use an authorized third party, remember that you must book with your National Identity Document (DNI). If you have not received your authorization letter, call the toll-free number +34 912 667 713, from Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and indicate this circumstance. In this case, we recommend that you have a copy of the application you submitted.
The marketing of these trips will begin for preferential borrowers on September 23 in the autonomous communities of origin of Andalusia, Aragon, Cantabria, Castile and León, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia and the autonomous city of Melilla. Those with preferential accreditation are those who, in the ranking of applications, according to the criteria established in the program’s regulatory decree and the resolution of the call, have obtained the highest scores and can access the reservation of a trip from the first day of marketing for each area. . The others, with non-preferential accreditation, will be able to start booking from September 24.
On September 25, the preferential period opens in the rest of the communities of origin: Asturias, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia, Galicia, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, La Rioja, Navarre, Basque Country and in the autonomous city of Ceuta, and 26 for the rest. From Saturday, September 28, all unfilled places will be accessible to all candidates, regardless of their community of origin.
Requirements for accessing the Imserso tourist program
There are a series of conditions to access the Imserso tourism program. If you meet them, remember that in 2024, the deadline for submitting applications ended on July 22. When next year’s submission period opens – probably in November and will remain open until May 2025 – the easiest way will be to submit a telematic application through the Imserso electronic headquarters:
Persons residing in Spain who meet one of the following conditions:
- Being retired from the Spanish social security system
- Be a widow’s pensioner aged 55 or over from the Spanish social security system
- Be retired for other concepts of the Spanish social security system or beneficiary of unemployment benefits or subsidies, aged 60 or over
- Be insured or a beneficiary of the Spanish social security system, aged 75 or over
Spaniards residing abroad provided they meet one of these conditions: being residents in Germany, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. They can process it with the corresponding labor, immigration and social security services.
Spaniards of immigrant origin who have returned to Spain, provided that they are retired from the public social security systems of the country or countries to which they emigrated.
Users may be accompanied by their spouse or, where applicable, a de facto partner or a person with whom a stable and cohabiting union is established with an emotional relationship similar to that of marriage, without it being necessary for them to meet the age or pension requirements.
Likewise, they may be accompanied by their disabled sons or daughters, to a degree equal to or greater than 45 percent, provided that they travel with their parents and stay in the same room or, where appropriate, pay the supplement established for double rooms for single use that will be subject to availability of places. In any case, users of the seat and their companions must take care of themselves to carry out basic activities of daily life.
If you do not meet the requirements, remember that most travel agencies offer packages for seniors, with which you can find offers to organize your vacation at a lower cost.
Imserso, against loneliness
According to the latest official data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), 41.7 percent of people living alone in Spain are 65 years of age or older. “In many cases, loneliness is a problem and it gets worse with age, especially among women, as the data indicates,” explains Mayte Sancho, general director of the Institute for the Elderly and Social Services.
This is why the Institute claims the beneficial effects of Imserso trips to face the challenge of unwanted loneliness: “One of our priorities with this tourist program is to strengthen the social relationships that are woven between users and thus obtain a positive impact on their lives,” he adds.
Imserso highlights the great acceptance of this tourist program among retirees in Spain. A survey carried out by the institute itself and published in 2023, indicated that 90.8 percent of users consider this program “very good” or “good”, and detected that 66.1 percent of retired users repeat their trips year after year.
