The Minister of Tourism for Spain, Reyes Maroto, said this morning that she is very optimistic about the forecasts for the arrival of tourists this summer and stressed that the priority in the Canary Islands "is to reactivate tourism as quickly and safely as possible to recover its economy and tackle a process of modernization of the business sector.”
She said this earlier in her speech at the 'Canarias after Covid-19' conference, which is being held today and tomorrow organized by EL ESPAÑOL, Invertia and Diario de Avisos. During her speech, she said that she sees "a lot of hope for the future of the Canary Islands" for two reasons: the resistance of the productive fabric, and an aid plan that has exceeded 20% of GDP; in addition to the good progress of the vaccination plan.
This is on top of the positive news for the Canary Islands, that since Saturday, travellers from the Netherlands can come to Spain without quarantine, and Denmark and Germany have placed the Canary Islands on their green lists, something that the UK could do very soon too.
She recalled that the EU is working hard to modify the recommendation that regulates non-essential travel from outside the Union, something that is expected to take place on Thursday (May 20th), which would allow British tourists into Spain without the need for a PCR test, once the UK gives the green light.
The minister stressed that the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan is very important for tourism. "We are going to make 3.4 billion euros available for green and digital transformations," she explained. This is in addition to the 1.9 billion euros that is being allocated to modernize sustainable tourism over the next few years. The third axis is aimed at improving the competitiveness of the tourism sector. And the fourth is the strategy for island and ultra-peripheral territories to improve their tourist structure with a 100 million euro budget.
The European funds and the recovery plan offer many opportunities, so much so that the minister stressed that "the Canary Islands can take advantage of these funds to guarantee their economy in the future.”
She concluded by calling for the Spanish Government and the EU to act quickly so that the aid reaches the Canary Islandsas soon as possible. Our message is just one: “Wake Up Brussels; Wake Up Spain; Wake Up Canarias. Let's all Wake Up together”.
