Promotur Turismo de Islas Canarias will offer 50,000 tourist vouchers valued at 200 euros so that islanders can travel this summer in the archipelago itself. This was announced this Wednesday by the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Yaiza Castilla, during the presentation of the strategy developed to encourage domestic tourism, which was also attended by the managing director of Promotur, José Juan Lorenzo, and the director of Marketing Communication Projects, Alberto Ávila.
Specifically, this is an action consisting of a communication campaign aimed at Canary Island tourists and a series of measures to boost activity around accommodation establishments, with an investment of 16 million euros.
In this way, up to 50,000 Canary Island residents will be able to access one of the two types of tourist vouchers - accommodation and travel agencies - which will materialize in prepaid cards with 200 euros that can be enjoyed until the end of the year.
Accommodation tourist voucher
The accommodation tourist voucher would consist of a virtual or physical card that will have a charge of 200 euros to which the beneficiary resident will have to contribute another 200 euros. The formula to achieve one of these vouchers will be through a draw before a notary, so that all participants have the same possibilities.
During the first two weeks of July, Canary Island residents over 18 years of age can register on the website www.somosafortunados.com to apply for a nominative card.
The draw will be held on July 14 and the list of winners will be published one day later, at which time the voucher can begin to be used both to pay for the stay and to enjoy any other service offered by the chosen accommodation.
People who obtain a voucher may choose between the establishments registered in the General Tourist Registry of the Canary Islands that have joined this initiative and that have a POS with an assigned business number, so that the beneficiary uses their card in person.
Travel agency tourist voucher
On the other hand, the travel agency tourist voucher will be obtained through the same process, a draw before a notary, and on the same dates. In this case, the first difference is that the card will also have a charge of 200 euros, but the Canary Island resident will not have to contribute any economic amount.
This voucher must be spent in physical travel agencies, located in any of the eight islands, and must be used to contract a vacation package that involves a minimum stay of 5 days in the summer season (between July and September) or a minimum stay of 3 days between October and December.
"Domestic tourism is going to play an important role in the Canary Islands tourism sector again this summer and, although it will not be able to compensate for the deficit in our main foreign issuing markets, we do believe that it can have a greater impact if we achieve a greater quantitative presence in the tourist establishments of the islands, an increase in the average stay or a greater deseasonalization in the internal tourist consumption of the Canarians", explained the counselor.
According to Promotur data, Canary Island tourism is a market that is reactivating faster than the rest. From January to April, 76% of the demand that existed in 2019 for those same months has been recovered.
In the summer of 2020, the domestic market gained an important share and was responsible for 36% of the demand, compared to 19% in the summer of 2019. Together with peninsular tourism, which also gained a share in the accommodation demand pie (going from 15% in the summer of 2019 to 25% in the summer of 2020), "Canary Island tourism helped to boost tourist accommodation in the face of the loss of weight of international tourism", Castilla recalled.
However, she clarified that for the summer of 2021 there are slightly more optimistic forecasts for international tourism in view of the latest measures adopted, such as the free movement of vaccinated people or the acceptance of antigen tests, as well as the attenuation of contagion figures and the rate of vaccination in Europe.
In any case, Castilla was cautious and stated that "we cannot lose sight of the fact that the majority of countries and regions around us are promoting holidays at home for their citizens, some of them through very harsh travel restrictions and a large part through a system of incentives".
