The Government of the Canary Islands has agreed this Thursday, in its Council meeting, to suspend until January 31, 2022 the obligation to present the COVID certificate to access tourist accommodation, as announced by the spokesman for the Canary Islands Executive, Antonio Olivera.
In the press conference after the Governing Council, the spokesman indicated that this suspension of sections 1 and 3 of the Decree Law on extraordinary measures in tourism to address the effects of the health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
Antonio Olivera specified that this modification means that it will not be necessary to prove to be free of the disease to stay in tourist spaces, either with a diagnostic test, with the vaccination certificate or for having passed the disease, or with a responsible declaration of not having left the islands in the 15 days prior to arrival at the establishment, this for the case of Canary Islands residents.
Olivera pointed out that the joint proposal of the Ministry of Tourism and Health approved means that until January 31 next and without prejudice to successive extensions, that condition of access to tourist accommodation is temporarily suspended, pending the evolution that the pandemic may follow.
He stressed that the agreement, which will take effect on the same day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands, is the most convenient legal way for the progressive return to normality, given that the progress of vaccination in Europe and the Canary Islands, as well as the existence of a control procedure for foreign travelers at airports against the pandemic (where a vaccination certificate or COVID diagnostic test with a negative result is already required), advises it.
The spokesman for the Executive stressed that, as the Ministry of Tourism had agreed with the four main Canary Islands employers' associations in the sector, it was necessary to eliminate the existing double control (airport and accommodation) and relax the rules established in the Canary Islands tourist accommodation establishments for protection against the disease and as a measure to help strengthen the image of the Canary Islands as a safe destination and guarantor of high standards of health protection for its visitors.
Antonio Olivera also stressed that the progress of vaccination continues to be "very positive" in the Canary Islands and is allowing to reduce the number of infections, which has allowed Fuerteventura to move to level 1 this Thursday, so all eight islands would now be at low risk.
Olivera emphasized that this is good news for the arrival of the high tourist season, a fact that is reflected in the good hotel occupancy figures that have been confirmed by the tourist employers and that gives rise to signs that the winter season may be positive for the Canary Islands.
