Turismo de Canarias inaugurated this Wednesday its presence at the International Tourism Fair Fitur with a clear commitment to the peninsular market for the current summer season. This objective will be accompanied by an air schedule for the three main summer months in which 100% of the connectivity existing in the same period of 2019, the pre-covid year, is already shown.
These positive forecasts were the protagonists of the inauguration of the Canary Islands stand by the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Yaiza Castilla, at the Ifema fairgrounds in Madrid. An event that this year has a special importance after 14 very complicated months for the sector and that symbolizes the beginning of the road towards the recovery of tourism activity.
"We are here with the 70-70 objective, that is, that we have 70 percent of the population vaccinated in the summer and that by the end of 2021 we have 70 percent of the tourism we had in 2019," explained the President of the Canary Islands. For this, it will be fundamental what was advanced today by the president that the Canary Islands exceed 100% of air seats closed with the Peninsula for the summer months, "which is the immediate objective; therefore, we recover connectivity with what is the third most important market, the peninsular market," he added.
He also recalled that recently both Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark placed the Canary Islands on their green list and expressed hope that the United Kingdom will also do so in the coming days.
The head of the Executive highlighted the importance in itself of the celebration of Fitur, "the important thing is that we are here and we are present," he said, and recalled the past edition in January 2020 when "we said that we had passed the test of the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook, and, however, we were at the gates of the first case of coronavirus in Spain, which was registered in La Gomera."
The president detailed the work carried out by the Government of the Canary Islands from that first moment of the pandemic, which was followed by the confinement of the hotel in Adeje. "It was responded well, despite the fact that there was no experience, and it was a recognized work. We were ahead, with decisions that had to do with the tourism sector, prioritizing health and demonstrating that the Canary Islands did things with coherence and also with successful results," he added.
He praised the attitude of the citizens and the economic, social, trade union, and political agents during the confinement and the state of alarm. "They were on the same path, which was none other than saving lives, with the aim that as soon as possible we could recover our fundamental economic sector, which is tourism," he added, while recalling that today it is one of the regions with a more favorable control of the pandemic within the European Union and the only autonomous community that has not been at extreme risk.
In reference to the slogan of the new Tourism of the Canary Islands campaign, the head of the Executive highlighted that "in the Canary Islands the sun rises every day" and wanted to send a message of optimism and welcome. "We are looking forward to receiving you because on this occasion this door will not be closed, it will remain open for the sun that arrives in the Canary Islands every day, because I am convinced that every day, on this occasion yes, is better than the previous day."
According to the information provided by Yaiza Castilla, for the current summer season, from May to October, the Canary Islands has 2.7 million air seats scheduled with the rest of the national territory, a figure that represents 88% of the air connectivity that existed in the same period of 2019, in which 3.1 million seats were offered.
With regard to the so-called short summer (July, August and September), "which concentrates the majority of operations between the Islands and the Peninsula, the Archipelago could recover all the connectivity it had in 2019 if the schedule announced by the airlines is met, which foresee offering 1.4 million seats in 2021, the same as two years ago," Castilla said.
The Minister of Tourism valued very positively the recovery of connectivity with the peninsular market, the third in importance for the Archipelago, and highlighted the confidence that airlines have always shown in the early recovery of the economic engine of the Islands, provided that the pandemic began to be controlled with vaccination.
"We have done a great job in providing security to the entire tourism value chain and the sector as a whole has shown great resilience during the pandemic, demonstrating time and again its ability to receive tourists again whenever they have been able to travel to the Archipelago, which has consolidated us as a reliable and safe destination," said the Minister.
Castilla explained that, in addition to the high recovery of air connectivity, there are other conditions of peninsular tourism that play in favor of the Canary Islands. Firstly, that the effects of intermittent closures on economic activity have been less damaging than initially anticipated due to support measures, such as the extension of the ERTEs, as well as because companies have learned to adapt to restrictions and maintain, as far as possible, their activity and thus avoid greater unemployment.
In addition, teleworking has allowed to maintain activity in many sectors of the economy and has significantly increased the level of savings during the pandemic which, together with the end of perimeter closures and mobility restrictions, make the take-off of domestic tourism this summer more viable, argued the Minister.
