The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has agreed with the President of Madeira, Miguel Filipe Machado de Albuquerque, to create a green corridor between both archipelagos "to facilitate the exchange of tourists from phase 3 of the de-escalation and promote the reactivation of the sector with the maximum guarantees of safety".
This is the first agreement reached by two outermost regions (ORs) of the European Union after the COVID-19 health crisis to promote one of the most important sectors of their economy. "It has been a very productive telematic meeting," said Ángel Víctor Torres, where it has been agreed that Madeira and the Canary Islands, "safe territories with low contagiousness", that any citizen who travels between archipelagos, does so after taking a PCR test with a negative result, "because we believe it is essential to have safe tourism".
In addition, the President of the Canary Islands announced that the Atlantic ORs - Madeira, Azores and the Canary Islands - will send a letter to the European Union requesting that the European reconstruction funds "prioritize tourism and have sufficient amounts for the outermost Atlantic regions". On the other hand, the three archipelagos will also demand in Europe that the issuing countries carry out tests in the country of origin on tourists who visit these territories. "In any case," added the Canarian president, "we are reinforcing security measures at airports so that, as soon as possible, we can have tourist normality".
The meeting, held by videoconference, was also attended by the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Yaiza Castilla; the Minister of Health, Julio Pérez, and the Minister of Finance, Budgets and European Affairs, Román Rodríguez. On behalf of the Government of Madeira, the Secretary of Tourism, Eduardo Jesus, and the Secretary of Health, Pedro Ramos, attended.
"Both in the Canary Islands and in Madeira, the coronavirus has had a favorable evolution, which places them in an advantageous position compared to other destinations and facilitates the exchange of tourists in safe conditions," they defend from the regional Executive
The Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla, highlights of this agreement that, in addition to allowing the reactivation of tourist flows between both archipelagos, it "allows us to transmit to Europe an image of health security that allows us to fight against the fear of contagion existing globally and that logically slows down demand and connectivity"
Regarding the incidence of the pandemic, in the case of Madeira, no deaths have been recorded and the current number of positive cases for COVID-19 amounts to 91, while the number of recovered patients stands at 80, according to official data provided on June 2.
With regard to the Canary Islands, the latest official data put the number of infected people at 2,363, of which 2,028 have been cured. "To guarantee the good results of this green corridor, both archipelagos have agreed to apply a series of strict guidelines or protocols to preserve the health security acquired in the islands during the confinement stage," they point out.
As in the Canary Islands, Madeira's economy depends, to a large extent, on the services sector, and especially on tourism, due to the multiplier effect it has on various sectors of activity and its contribution to job creation. With a population of just over 260,000 inhabitants, Madeira receives about 1.4 million tourists a year.
The Portuguese region, which will restart tourist activity on July 1, coinciding with the elimination of the quarantine decreed in Portugal, was the first international connection bet from the Canary Islands by the company Binter, in 2005. In 2019, the airline of Canarian capital transported a total of 35,000 passengers between both archipelagos. Looking ahead to this year, the purpose that has been transferred to the Ministry of Tourism is to resume flights between both territories as soon as the current restrictions end.
