While waiting for the decision to be adopted this afternoon by the Interterritorial Health Council on the tightening of the measures for Easter, the Canarian tourism sector continues to try to save the trips between the Islands at all costs. Now that it is necessary to present proof of COVID-19 refusal to travel, many residents have canceled their trips due to the high cost of the tests. For this, the company Binter It is negotiating with laboratories and clinics that the price of the antigen test is only 15 euros. In this way, they prevent the cost of the test from preventing canaries from spending a few days off on another island. It is expected that, during the day tomorrow, the airline will specify how to carry out this initiative.
On the other hand, the delicate situation that the entire tourism sector is going through continues with negative forecasts for 2021. David Déniz, president of the Canarian Association of Travel Agencies (ACAVyT), foresees that this year 50% of travel agencies will close. trips to the Islands, which have been surviving on savings for a year. In addition, the airlines still owe almost 6 million euros to the agencies for the tickets refunded due to the pandemic. They have returned the money to the people who have requested it, but have not received the full amount from the airlines. Until last October they owed 20 million euros to the Canary Islands travel agencies. The debt has decreased to almost 6 million because Binter, Iberia and Vueling the accounts have already been settled. But nevertheless, Norwegian, Ryanair y Air EuropaThey have not yet done so: “Air Europa is a company that has been rescued by the State and the first clause of that agreement was to use this money to catch up with all refunds. To date they have not returned a penny “, argues David Déniz. Also, despite multiple complaints from the National Confederation of Travel Agencies, there is currently no deadline for airlines to pay outstanding debts.
In this way, the president of the ACAVyT trusts the impetus of Imserso tourism at the end of this year as a starting point to resume tourism activity: “Our return depends directly on the vaccination rate and the elderly are being the first to be vaccinated.”
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