The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has requested this Monday that the health certificate for travel be agreed upon "urgently" within the framework of the European Union (EU), since he considered it "key" for a "safe" transit of people.
This was requested by Torres during his speech at the presentation of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Strategy for Tourism Sustainability in Destination at the Auditorium of Jameos del Agua, in the municipality of Haría.
Torres stressed that tourism is currently also dependent on external factors such as the need to agree, "urgently", in the EU on that health certificate that, he stressed, "is key for a safe transit", pointing out that the sector needs to "recover lost time."
In this sense, he pointed out that the Canary Islands aspires to recover tourism activity "by 70 and 80 percent" in the last months of the year 2021 with respect to what it had in the year 2019, setting the years 2022 and 2023 as those of recovery. However, he clarified that it is necessary to "advance in energy efficiency, respect for the environment and digitization to achieve sustainability in all its broad extension", transforming the tourism sector within this framework.
Thus, in relation to the strategy presented by the Ministry, he added that they are linked to the actions promoted by the Government of the Canary Islands that intends to carry them out through European funds in its commitment to the green transformation.
Regarding tourists, the Canarian president has stated that a reduction in the overall number of tourists "does not have to affect productivity", since he has clarified that "people will travel, perhaps to fewer places, but for more days", hence he advocated making the benefits of sustainability "coexist with a smaller carbon footprint, with decarbonization" and with the fact that tourists will demand more and more from their destinations.
However, he pointed out that previously it is necessary to "logically get out of this nightmare that is Covid-19" but, he nuanced, we must "do it with a sustainable, digital mentality and with resilience tools and, above all, appealing to hope and optimism."
He added that "no" we can fall into the same mistakes made, although we must restart "being aware that we have weaknesses but also strengths", hence he transmitted to the Ministry that it can count on the Canary Islands to "share knowledge, join forces, do it with all the territories and understand that only" there is one "enemy, the pandemic."
In relation to this, he stressed the importance of vaccination being extended, stressing that in the case of the Canary Islands the objective is, as in the whole of Spain, to have 70 percent of the population vaccinated in the coming months.
"There is an undeniable logistical potential, supplies cannot fail", he added, adding that the Canary Islands has more than 250 points to vaccinate and this week hopes to reach 25,000 vaccinated and contain infections, since in a week there are between "20 and 30 fewer infected. That invites optimism."
