49% of the hotels will be open in the Archipelago this August, while the rest still do not dare to announce a date. This is the data provided this Tuesday by the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, during the control session held in the regional Parliament. In his speech, Torres opted for "realism and prudence", due to the uncertainties and doubts still existing with the outbreaks of Covid-19, and due to the "enormous difficulties that the commercial aviation activity drags".
However, he also stated that there are reasons to be "optimistic". As an example, he cited the case of La Gomera, where "80% of the tourist places are covered this August", basically with islanders and peninsulars, although its accommodation offer has nothing to do with that of other islands such as Lanzarote. "We hope to give better data than expected for July and August, which will be key months to test the sector's response. We must make a call for our own consumption, prepare well for the high season and control outbreaks and re-outbreaks, although everything will depend on the pandemic. A vaccine is needed as the definitive weapon to defeat it," explained the President of the Canary Islands after a question from Nueva Canarias (NC).
In December of this year, however, Torres pointed out that it is possible to reach "60% of the tourist activity that existed in the same month of the previous year", mainly due to the prospects of partial recovery of international tourism. This July, a total of 450,000 places have been confirmed with the airlines, which represents 30% of those that existed the previous year (1.458 million) in the same period.
President Torres predicts a greater recovery from December because it is expected that Europeans will now rule out other destinations at greater distances. He also remarked that the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has chosen the Canary Islands as a benchmark for quality and health security in the symbolic tourism reopening carried out with the recent trip of a delegation of authorities, experts and journalists.
The "maximum effort" in the extension of the ERTE due to force majeure
Regarding the ERTE, Torres remarked as "a great success" the fact that his Executive, after negotiations that he detailed in depth, has achieved before the central Government that the Canary Islands become the only region that, due to its remoteness and other singularities, is included in the royal decree with an exception (additional provision) for its extension until December, and not only until September 30. In response to CC, Torres recalled that from the beginning and also on May 2, he demanded that the central Government extend the ERTE in the Islands and that the text of June 26 had the consensus of all the subsectors and, however, the Canarian Government "worked to achieve a unique treatment that is achieved at two in the morning".
The head of the Canary Islands Executive also referred to the new school year and stressed the antiCovid-19 protocol that the Ministry of Education has already developed to prevent everything related to the pandemic and how to develop the teaching activity, combining health and this other basic right as much as possible. However, he made it clear that semi-attendance or distance education will only be decreed exceptionally, especially in the case of Infant and Primary education, although there will be isolation measures in the event of any outbreak.
Torres recalled that, despite the doubts, there was already an end to the previous year. "Classes will start as planned, but anything can happen until September. The competences in education must have a minimum common ground on protocols in Spain. Classes will be face-to-face and, depending on the cases, priority will be given to those in the lower grades, those who finish the end of the cycle and the reinforcements for those who finish the course. "We are working in a coordinated manner with the educational community and works are being carried out to maintain the necessary distances in the classrooms," explained the President of the Canary Islands.
