The Government of the Canary Islands will require national and international tourists to have a certificate of a negative Covid-19 test to enter the islands, and without it they will not be allowed to stay in a tourist establishment.
After the meeting of the Advisory Council, the president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the Minister of Tourism, Yaiza Castilla, have advanced the main lines of a decree law that they want to approve this week, if possible this Tuesday.
According to the Minister, it would be a matter of reforming the regional laws on Tourism Planning and Classified Activities and Public Spectacles to guarantee safe tourism and the right to full information to avoid claims.
To this end, national and foreign tourists would be required to have a certificate of a negative Covid-19 test taken no more than 48 to 72 hours prior to arrival at the destination, which will be required to access tourist accommodation such as a hotel, apartment or holiday home.
If this document is not presented, access to tourist accommodation will not be allowed and the person will be urged to take the test at a health center or laboratory, paying for it out of their own pocket.
Through these changes, and via the right of access to tourist accommodation establishments, on the one hand, and via the right of users to truthful prior information on the conditions of access to them, on the other hand, the aim is to guarantee that, for health reasons and in order to limit the impact on people's health, the client must prove with a negative result of a COVID-19 test that they are free of the virus, either after having it done at origin or, if there is no place, at destination, as soon as they arrive.
The legal proposal is based on trying to give the maximum guarantees available so that tourists, when traveling to the Islands, are free of COVID-19, which can be proven with a test and for which the antigen test, which is faster and cheaper, or others that are considered or could be accredited as valid by the health authorities, would be accepted.
The decree law complies with the limits set by the regional competences to undertake a legal regulation in this matter and "has been configured to respond to a situation that requires immediate action," said the Minister.
If necessary, the Canary Islands Government would even contemplate, in guarantee of the health reciprocity that it defends must exist, offering the tourist a test before returning to their country of origin.
In addition, the Canary Islands already has established care for tourists at the destination if it is necessary when a visitor tests positive for Covid-19 (through their health care, quarantine accommodation and repatriation), thanks to the complementary travel assistance policy that the Ministry of Tourism has signed.
The regulation of this obligation to provide a negative test to access accommodation establishments entails the design of the different measures to guarantee the appropriate circuit and procedure for its application.
The Minister of Tourism explained that the formula for implementing these controls "is based on three basic precepts: health security, commercial security for the agents involved in the sector and transparency in the information to which the client is entitled."
"It is a very important decree law that has been in preparation before Germany and Great Britain lifted the restrictions to travel to the Canary Islands", said the Canarian president, while acknowledging the work done in recent weeks. For Ángel Víctor Torres, "the proposal is quite professional and adequate; it is the first document of this type that will be approved by an autonomous community."
