The Government are finalising the dates for the start of the holidays in Spain
When can we go on vacation?
That is the big question during this time of de-escalation. The coronavirus curbed any possibility of mobility, not only international travel, but national and even local travel, with all kinds of restrictions in place.
The Government's have revealed its plans to reactivate the tourism market before the tourist season officially starts by opening national tourism while keeping a close eye on international tourism. Last week the Government expressed the possibility of allowing inter provincial trips through fixed, designated routes, they are referring to as "safe corridors". This week the Executives are discussing a time frame to implement the possibility of holidays in Spain, thus giving us the answer to the hopeful initial question: Trips through national territory will be allowed within several weeks, however, Spain are still in discussions regarding the markets for the arrival of foreign visitors.
To reactivate national tourism, the Ministry will have a plan that "in a matter of days" will be announced and that by the end of June there will be inter-provincial mobility .
"The last few days we are having very good (epidemiological) data (...) and that means we can bring forward that mobility by a few days, not many," adds the minister, who advocates maintaining "prudence". In addition, on Friday the Ministry presented the communities with a national campaign with which they want to encourage them to travel within Spain , because "we need Spaniards to do our bit this summer too."
One of the pillars of the national tourism revival plan will be digitisation, according to Snra Maroto, including topics such as mobility control or contagion traceability through mobile applications.
"Technology is going to become an ally of destinations," said the minister, but has not specified whether direct aid for families travelling is contemplated, as announced by Italy.
As she said, in terms of digitisation "there is going to be a significant effort by the government that we hope to be able to present in the next few days" to try to relaunch a "priority" and "tractor" sector.
International tourism: safe corridors
The Government is working on safe corridor projects so that in the second half of June some autonomous communities, currently Balearic and Canary Islands, can receive foreign tourists, possibly Germany and Nordic countries, as a preliminary step to full opening of international borders, from July 1st.
"The islands have offered to create these corridors and I will also speak with other autonomous communities that have an interest in defining which corridors and with what guarantees ", explained the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, in an interview with Efe .
The idea will be to do it the second half of June because " we also need the territories to be better epidemiological, " she added.
The objective, she has detailed, is to be able to test the protocols drawn up in tourism in the framework of the de- escalation plan after the confinement by the coronavirus, which has kept the tourism in Spain frozen, where it accounts for 13% of GDP and 12% of jobs.
At the moment only the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands have expressed their interest, but the minister has advanced that she will address the issue at the sectoral conference that will be held next week with the autonomous communities, since they are the ones that have to present a "viable" project , to not risk either the tourist's nor the resident's health.
Where will the first tourists come from?
As for the countries where these first tourists will come from, Snra Maroto explained that the Government is talking to " quite a few markets ", and has specifically highlighted Germany (the second largest tourist source market to Spain after the British) and the Nordic countries, which she describes as "in a very good (epidemiological) situation."
"It is very important that the first tourists are tourists who are in the same epidemiological situation as us," she explained, and that they "are also in a position to be able to fly safely."
Regarding the United Kingdom, Snra Maroto pointed out that, although there have been talks with tour operators such as TUI and Jet2holidays, there "the data still has to improve", since "for us it is important to ensure that the person comes in healthy and also returns in good health ".
In fact, the British authorities themselves still do not recommend travelling abroad, so British tour operators do not want to operate at the moment , according to the minister.
"Going faster doesn't mean being first"
"We still have time to recover a part of the summer campaign", defends Snra Maroto, and it is necessary to "recover the repositioning of the Spain brand " and "also stimulate international travellers to return to visit us. That is going to be a gradual process. "
Although it is difficult to calculate what will be the volume of international travellers who will visit Spain in the coming months, "we are encouraged", said the minister, because an " important " increase in national and international bookings is beginning to be seen .
"I do not really have the fear of losing tourists, because right now (tourists) are deciding where to travel and are looking a lot at the destination that guarantees safety and reliability," said the minister when referring to that are directly competitive with Spain, like Greece (which plans to open borders also on July 1) and Portugal and Italy, which will do so in June.
"Going faster does not mean being the first," she insists, while stressing that the government wants to "keep within time frames that guarantee safe destinations " for both the visitor and the resident.
The Spanish tourism sector is going to compete with its " strengths ", among which the health system has stood out, which "has resisted this pandemic and is going to be strengthened further" and that "is going to be a pillar to recover tourists". In that sense, "we are the best" compared to other competing destinations, she said.
Please note the above article has been translated from Spanish to English, so some detail may be lost in this translation, read the original article at lasprovincias.es