SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, December 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Ashotel has urged the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, to request the State Government during the Summit of Presidents to establish a tourist health corridor in the Islands to try to avoid the “collapse” of the sector and to save the winter season.
The tourist association bases this request on the fact that only 62 cases were detected last week among the tourist population in the Islands, according to the monitoring report of COVID tourist managers prepared weekly by the Tourism Department of the Canary Islands Government. This data represents 0.7% of the total of the 8,532 cases detected in the Archipelago over the past week.
Contrary to the general incidence of infections, which has skyrocketed in recent days, the data from the aforementioned report show an inverse behavior in cases associated with tourists, which have dropped from 121 in week 47 to 62 in week last week (week 50).
According to Ashotel, “this shows, once again, that the rise in infections has nothing to do with tourist and hotel facilities, in which strict security measures are followed, based on protocols developed by the country’s tourism sector, which They have proven to be very useful and have been the ISO standard throughout Europe. Throughout the pandemic crisis, accommodation establishments have been shown to be safe places where the applicable measures protect clients and workers “.
Of the cases of positive tourists for COVID-19 who needed health care last week (a total of 44), 7 used public resources from the Canary Islands Health Service, according to this same report, representing 16%. Most have private insurance coverage (23%) or make use of the AXA insurance, subscribed by the Government of the Canary Islands for the expenses of prolonging their stay, mainly in the hotels where they stay, so that attention to customers tourists, except for those serious cases that do require admission and hospital care, do not need public health resources.
Ashotel advocates facilitating the arrival of tourists who had planned their holidays this Christmas in the Canary Islands through this health corridor and who do not have exit restrictions in their countries of origin, always prior controls at the entrance to the Islands through the certificate Digital COVID from the EU or, in the case of British minors aged 12 to 17, who until recently did not have the second dose of the vaccine scheduled, may also show a PCR or official negative diagnostic test.
For the employers, “it is about making possible the tourist activity in the Islands this winter season, without renouncing the control and prevention of the disease. Otherwise, the outlook ahead is not at all encouraging, in terms of new ERTE and closing of companies “.
“CLEAR ROADMAP”
Likewise, before the next Summit of Presidents, the hoteliers of the Tenerife province ask that a “clear roadmap” be established for the tourism sector in the Islands, which had already started the recovery after the pandemic, with more than 90% of the staff in ERTE reincorporated and who is now at risk from the trend of cancellation of reservations, which already exceeds 40% only in Tenerife and with an upward trend these days.
The hotel association recalls that it has supported from the first moment the request for the COVID certificate, a tool that is currently voluntary in the Canary Islands, but that allows establishments that request it to apply the measures of capacity and hours of a lower level than the one found every island in every moment. He adds that hotel establishments, in fact, were pioneers in the Archipelago in requesting that control from their guests at the entrance to their facilities and that it has allowed them to be free from outbreaks of infections.
Regarding the obligatory nature of the COVID certificate, Ashotel considers that it represents a guarantee and a reinforcement of the controls indoors, endorsed by advisers in matters of Public Health of the Canarian Executive, such as Dr. Antonio Sierra.
