The Spanish Government presents a plan to reactivate safe tourism

USPA NEWS - The Spanish Government has presented the 'Tourism Sector Promotion Plan: towards a safe and sustainable post-COVID-19 tourism', which promotes a strategic activity of the Spanish production model. With this initiative, the Government's commitment to the sector rises to 19,535 million euros since the start of the pandemic.

This new Tourism Sector Promotion Plan consists of 28 measures that are articulated around five lines of action: the recovery of confidence in the destination (a 360º safe destination), the implementation of measures to reactivate the sector, the improvement of the competitiveness of the tourist destination, improvement of the tourism knowledge and intelligence model and a marketing and promotion campaign. The plan is endowed with 4,262 million euros. With this amount, the Government's support to the tourism sector rises to 19,535 million euros, since different shock measures have been activated since the start of the pandemic to support the Spanish economy, which have meant an injection of 15,273 million euros for the tourism and which have benefited both workers and companies.

The tourism value chain is one of the economic activities most affected by the current coronavirus health crisis. The new Tourism Sector Promotion Plan presented by the Spanish Government will enable the recovery of a fundamental sector in the economy of all regions, which represents 12% of the Gross Domestic Product of Spain and which it used from the beginning of 2020 to 13,6% of the total number of Social Security affiliates in the country.

According to the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, "Spain is once again open to tourism. Today we present a Boost Plan to relaunch it. We are world leaders. Therefore, each step we take will be a safe step. We will always take it responsibly and prudently, demonstrating that Spain is a safe and healthy destination."

The Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, present at the event, showed his commitment and collaboration with the promotion of Spanish tourism: "We can once again make Spain the capital of world tourism," he said.

A completely safe destination

"Confidence in the safety of the tourist destination is key for the tourist to contemplate the possibility of undertaking the trip. After the impact of the health crisis, it is necessary to regain that confidence, adopting all the necessary means to ensure maximum well-being for tourists. In this sense, we must ensure that all links in the value chain of the tourism sector incorporate specific hygienic-sanitary measures for each of them, offering confidence to the traveler," states the Spanish Government.

For this, this plan has activated 200,000 euros for the preparation of 21 specifications guides to prevent contagion by the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus, which include disinfection measures of the spaces and other conditions of cleanliness, capacity and social distance promoted by the sector and visas by the health authorities. In addition, the creation of a label is promoted to publicize the establishments that commit to following the guidelines and is already working on pilot projects to open the country to international tourism, through safe tourist corridors.

As part of this plan, the Board of Directors of Aena - the entity that manages Spanish airports - has approved a commercial incentive with the aim of contributing to a rapid recovery of air traffic in Spain. Each company will receive a discount on the average monthly landing rate for all those monthly operations in the Aena network that exceed the established levels: a 75% discount for the number of operations between the lower threshold and the upper threshold, and 100 % for the number that exceeds the upper threshold.