The Ministry of Tourism for the Canary Islands has announced today (Wednesday) that they are starting procedures for the Government to cancel the requirement of a certificate of vaccination against Covid-19 or a negative diagnostic test, to stay in Canarian tourist accommodation.
Yaiza Castilla, the Minister of Tourism, said that this decision is being made due to the "advancement of vaccination in Europe and the Canary Islands, and because there is already a control procedure of foreign travellers at airports”.
"The idea is that accommodation establishments on the islands no longer have to deal with this process, coinciding with the start of the winter season in November, when a greater influx of tourists is expected," she explained in a statement.
Consequently, the process for the cancellation of the decree-law for the requirement will be applied for. The current regulation establishes that to access tourist accommodation on the islands, it is necessary to prove you are free of Covid, either with a diagnostic test, or with a certificate of vaccination, or having passed the disease, or with a responsible declaration of not having left the islands in the 15 days prior to stay, in the case of Canarian residents.
The tourism departments from all the islands have agreed that it is necessary to eliminate the double control in airports and accommodation receptions, and to "relax the measures and strengthen the image of the Canary Islands as a tourist destination and guarantor of high standards of protection of the health of its visitors”.
They believe that the protection measures have contributed "to the low tourist demand for holidays in the archipelago, due to fear of epidemiological outbreaks, but now the conditions are different and there are greater means of protection, such as vaccination," they said in the statement.
There is no confirmed date yet when this repeal of the decree-law and the validation by Parliament will the place yet, but it is hoped that the process will start in tomorrow’s Governing Council meeting.
