The president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has once again insisted on the need for tourists who want to travel to the archipelago to undergo PCR tests in their countries of origin so that tourism activity can add a "security plus."
This was stated at a press conference after the twelfth videoconference with the regional presidents convened by Pedro Sánchez, who last week announced the opening of Spain to international tourism from July 1.
Ángel Víctor Torres stressed that there is a month left to close all the protocols and reiterated that the fundamental thing is that tests are done at the origin so that the planes can come full and the journey is safe.
"We are going to recover tourism and there is a desire to do tourism," said Torres, who added that the Canary Islands has added to its gastronomy, its landscapes and its climate "an unexpected attraction: health security."
In this sense, he highlighted that the Canary Islands has managed COVID-19 since the first case was confirmed on the island of La Gomera and then an entire hotel was quarantined, and it has been able to demonstrate it to the rest of the world, which "is also an attraction."
In his opinion, everything achieved so far will be "ruined" if "maximum health security" is not guaranteed. For this reason, he considers tests at the origin to be fundamental and added that efforts are being made to have an international protocol and have that extra security.
Regarding the 189,000 million European funds that will be allocated to tourism, of which Spain expects to receive some 140,000 million, the president of the Canary Islands pointed out that having this fund is "going in the right direction" but "this has to be closed", and he hopes that any modification or change will be "for the better".
Torres stressed that the European Union has understood, on this occasion, that it cannot be repeated that the most disadvantaged classes are the ones who have to pay for the crisis. "Therefore, funds are coming not to be dedicated to luxury, but so that ERTEs can continue, maintain the welfare state, have public health and education, so that companies have liquidity and so that Europe soon feels that this nightmare has been overcome with the effort of all its members."
Bilateral commission
He has also insisted again that the use of the surplus and resorting to debt be allowed, proposals that will be put on the table at the next Canary Islands-State bilateral commission, for which the Minister of Territorial Policy, Carolina Darias, is already holding preliminary meetings.
Ángel Víctor Torres is confident that this bilateral commission will be held soon and he is convinced that it will finally be allowed to use the surplus to face the reduction of resources, as well as to agree on and seek other ways of indebtedness to respond to the social situation in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
