SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 26 Oct. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Parliament of the Canary Islands has unanimously approved a non-law proposal (PNL) from the Popular Group in which the regional government is requested to comply with the commitments made in the La Palma Renace Plan, with the aim of encouraging national and international area connectivity. international with the island.
The deputy Jacob Qadri, in charge of defending the proposal, pointed out that the recovery of La Palma will depend largely on the recovery of air connectivity and the reestablishment of tourist activity, which, according to what he said, will only come when that the housing occupancy levels prior to the eruption are recovered.
The deputy explained that, according to official statistics from the Government of the Canary Islands, in 2021 there was a 45% reduction compared to 2019 in the arrival of passengers on direct flights to La Palma, which translated into 218,000 fewer tourists. During this year 2022, according to the latest data accumulated until the month of August, passengers from abroad have been reduced by 65% (74,000 fewer tourists) compared to pre-pandemic data.
Jacob Qadri added that if the 74,000 tourists are multiplied by the 152 euros per day that an average tourist spends in the Canary Islands and by the 4 days of average stay, in that period a “whopping” 45 million euros would have been lost. And if national tourism is also taken into account, he pointed out that this figure would reach 100 million euros.
Likewise, the deputy pointed out that the tourism sector of La Palma is still waiting for the Government of the Canary Islands to transfer its 50% of the La Palma Renace Plan and sees the winter season in danger due to the lack of promised aid and the lack of accommodation beds, which They have caused the companies that regularly operate with the island to reduce connectivity from the issuing countries, as has been announced, for example, by Ryanair with the cancellation of the flight from Milan from November or Vueling with the connections from Paris and Bilbao.
Qadri also added that the absence of immediate compliance with the call for connectivity incentives announced since the beginning of the year has generated distrust in the airlines that operated with La Palma.
For this reason, from the Popular Group they request compliance, without exception, with the incentives for the improvement of the national and international air connectivity of La Palma for the year 2022, endowed with an item of 2.65 million, as well as extending the same during the year 2023, regardless of the new routes recently announced by the Government of the Canary Islands.
In addition, they ask the regional Executive to extend the specific tourist voucher for La Palma; that the Government of Spain be urged to make effective all the aid to the accommodation units proposed by the Cabildo de La Palma, in the municipalities affected by the eruption of the volcano with the aim of restoring as soon as possible the number of beds available before of the volcanic eruption.
Similarly, the State is urged to carry out the reimbursement to airlines of 100% of the amount of the fee for the use of infrastructures on all flights originating at La Palma Airport and peninsular and international destinations, as has been done in 2022.
“MUCH WORSE”.
On behalf of ASG, the deputy Jesús Ramos Chinea stated that without the work carried out by the Tourism Department of the Government of the Canary Islands, the recovery of tourism on the island of La Palma would have been “much worse”, and he supported the PNL because in The matter of connectivity of La Palma is still “fighting” from the Ministry and he wanted to remember that not all his actions end with the aid for connectivity.
The deputy Francisco Déniz (Yes We Can Canary Islands) attributed the drop in connectivity with the island of La Palma to the fact that there is a problem of supply and demand because there are fewer accommodation beds available as a result of the eruption of the volcano, around 900 beds less . However, he supported the proposal of the Popular Party to try to recover tourism in La Palma and guarantee connectivity with the island.
Carmen Hernández, from Nueva Canarias, stressed that the economic reactivation of La Palma goes through the recovery of tourist activity and, therefore, by subsidizing air connectivity, which is why she supported the PP initiative. For his part, the socialist deputy Manuel Abrante asked the Tourism Department of the Government of the Canary Islands and its counterpart in the Cabildo de La Palma to work with their own funds for the recovery of tourism on the island.
For the Mixed Group, Ricardo Fernández de la Puente (Cs) emphasized that the tourist recovery of La Palma will not be complete until it recovers all of its air connectivity. Finally, the nationalist deputy Sergio Rodríguez lamented the “impassive” look of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo of La Palma at the loss of flights to the island. “It is time to work with everything that has to do with the La Palma Renace Plan. We need to reposition ourselves in the main markets, but without connectivity, a recovery in the sector is impossible.”
