Coalición Canaria has criticized the formula chosen by the Government led by Ángel Víctor Torres to manage the tourist vouchers, which will benefit "only and exclusively 50,000 Canarians" and will be awarded by lottery. The Canarian nationalists accuse the Executive of "improvising and arriving late, since they will extend the granting of the vouchers until July 14, with the season already advanced", as well as of turning "the star measure to save the summer season into a raffle". Therefore, they demand that the Canarian president "rectify and agree with the tourism industry and travel agencies on a formula that is not that of chance".
"Public money is not raffled", they warn from CC, which asks the Government for "rigor and seriousness to face the recovery of the economic engine of the Islands" and claims that "they make a real commitment to local tourism, which is the only one that depends solely on us and not on the restrictions of third countries or the prices of tickets that endanger the peninsular market".
Likewise, they point to the criteria used in other Autonomous Communities "that have been weeks, if not months, ahead with the application of a tourist voucher for residents that, in no case, involves a lottery". Thus, they give as an example the Andalusian tourist voucher, which residents can access by meeting requirements such as a minimum stay of two nights in accommodations listed with the distinctive 'Andalucía Segura' and ranging from 200 to 500 euros, according to criteria such as the number of nights of stay, tax criteria and age of the beneficiaries, among others. They also gave as an example the case of the Balearic Islands, which has launched a tourist voucher of 100 euros for all residents who travel from June to November to any other island other than the island of residence; or that of Madrid, which offers discounts of up to 600 euros, "but in no case through raffles".
"Resources taken from the sector itself that they now intend to raffle"
From CC they describe the proposal of the Pacto de las Flores as "ridiculous" and denounce the damage that the Executive "is doing to the image of the Islands as a tourist destination". They also recall that the resources with which this measure is financed "were taken from the sector itself from the 80 million euros that they promised to allocate to the tourist IBI, resources that they now intend to raffle, among thousands of Canarians who saw in the tourist voucher an opportunity to spend a vacation in our land, after a few hard months due to the pandemic".
The Canarian nationalists have urged Torres and his Government team "to take seriously once and for all the situation that this land is going through, with more than 277,000 unemployed and 80,000 Canarians in Erte who look to the summer with hope to recover their jobs".
In this context, they recall that the tourism industry "continues without receiving any help from the Government of the Canary Islands or the State, which has not complied with the mandate of the Senate and with the commitment of the minister to launch a rescue plan, but to that they now add a tourist voucher, which can only be accessed by lottery, from which it will not be known who has been 'awarded' until July 15, and which will amount to 200 euros, when a few days ago they were talking about vouchers of 250 to 700 euros".
The nationalists point out that the proposal of the Torres Executive more than an "aid seems like a joke" and point out that "rationing cannot be applied to a matter on which the salvation of the summer season in the Islands will largely depend after the refusal of the United Kingdom, the main issuing market, to lift the veto on the Canary Islands".