The Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla, held a meeting this Wednesday with the presidents of the main hotel associations of the islands to coordinate the protocol for the establishment of detection and diagnosis tests for Covid-19 both at origin and at destination for tourists and generate confidence in the destination for the winter season.
The meeting was attended by the president of the Hotel and Extra-Hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro (Ashotel), Jorge Marichal; the president of the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Businessmen of Las Palmas (FEHT), José María Mañaricúa; the president of the Lanzarote FTL and Asolán Tourist Federation, Susana Pérez and the president of the Association of Tourist Businessmen of Fuerteventura (Asofuer), Antonio Vicente Hormiga.
The Ministry of Tourism is working in coordination with Health on a protocol proposal on logistics for the implementation of safe corridors, in parallel to the negotiation initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the main tourism emitting markets, while contemplating the option of carrying out tests at origin, either with government agreements or in the private sphere through operators.
This protocol also contemplates carrying out these tests at the destination, upon departure of tourists, in coordination with island councils, accommodation companies and the regional government, so that the mutualization of risk is complied with.
The counselor positively assessed the indicators that have been occurring in recent days that suggest that the Canary Islands can aspire to a certain degree of tourist recovery for the winter season, such as the relaxation of travel restrictions to the islands that the United Kingdom has decided, so that it will add or remove from its list of safe Covid-19 corridors by region and not by country as until now, or the European Commission's proposal to coordinate and harmonize measures with third countries of the EU based on the same criteria.
The same highlights the statements made by the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who is inclined to establish tests for travelers rather than quarantines.
These measures aim to give confidence to demand and stability to companies in the travel sector and for which the Canary Islands touristically is in a "good position" to start given that it is the only sun destination with capacity for the winter season, says the counselor.
Lowering contagion levels
In any case, employers and the Regional Ministry of Tourism are aware that any measure in favor of Canary Islands tourism activity involves lowering the current levels of incidence of the pandemic in the Canary Islands, for which they insist on tightening measures in those areas where contagion levels are higher, so that "there is time" for the opening of the winter season that in the islands runs from November to March.
According to Castilla, "we have lost our main international issuing markets, which complicates the planning of the winter season and compromises the viability of the tourism business, a situation that worries not only the Canary Islands tourism sector, but also the issuing sector is being seriously harmed by the veto to the Canary Islands, since it is the only high-volume winter destination at medium distance from the main issuing markets that, in addition, has all the European standards, highly appreciated at this time of pandemic".
