Spain and Greece adopt a comparative strategy to attract tourists

Francina Armengol emphasized why the summer tourist season is so important to Spain’s Balearic Islands. She pointed to the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic-last year’s production collapsed due to brutality twenty four%.

The leaders of the islands including Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza said: “The economy has completely stopped.” In a bumper year, the island attracted 14 million foreign tourists. On the eve of the new tourist season, only about one-fifth of the approximately 1,000 hotels in the area are open.

Even in Spain (Spain’s growth in 2020 is Worst In the industrialized world. But this is shared with other Spanish and Greek islands that have been hit hard economically. They are preparing for a return to mass tourism, and they hope this will be their salvation.

German tourists have returned, providing welcome relaxation for hoteliers and bar owners. But the difference between success and failure may lie in winning tourists from the UK.

Spain said on Friday that it will resume reception of British tourists from May 24; Greece opened to British tourists last month. However, neither of these countries are outside the “green list” of destinations that British nationals can travel to without strict testing and quarantine requirements.

Before the tourist season, the Spanish and Greek islands are taking different routes.

Spain has waited longer to open to British tourists, although it is still replacing the official EU guide.

Greece is going its own way, opening up earlier, providing vaccinations for people on tourist-dependent islands, ahead of the rest of the population, and accepting foreign tourists who have been vaccinated with vaccines that have not been approved by the European Union’s drug regulatory agency.

“Some destinations are playing irresponsible games, and sometimes there are irresponsible proposals,” Amangor said. “Public health is fundamental.”

She emphasized the hard Covid kerb of the Balearic people-with Madrid, The country tried to relax restrictions and control transportation to and from the mainland.The 14-day infection rate in the Balearic Islands is less than one-third of that of Spain, and its 7-day infection rate speed Slightly below British.

Based on such statistics, Spain is urging the United Kingdom to assess the safety of destinations based on regions rather than countries. It believes that this will enable British travelers to return to the islands and other places, and British travelers are the second largest source of tourists to Balearic, after Germany, and the main source of Spain as a whole.

This week, when the British government made recommendations for any destination that is not considered “green”, it emphasized the importance of this step. British Transport Minister Grant Shapps emphasized that visitors to “amber” countries such as Spain or Greece must conduct several tests and observe the quarantine after returning to the UK. He emphasized: “If this is an’amber’ or’red’ country, please don’t travel on holidays.”

The return of British tourists is of great economic importance to Spain and Greece. Last year, the number of tourists from both countries dropped by nearly 80%. Both are seeking to return to half of 2019 levels this year.

Under normal circumstances, tourism accounts for about 12% of Spain’s GDP, and in Greece, tourism accounts for about one-fifth of total output. Charalmbos Voulgaris, head of the Island Hotel Association, said that Corfu is the most popular destination for British tourists, and its direct or indirect dependence on tourism accounts for about 90%. He warned that if this summer is as bad as 2020, it will be catastrophic.

Faced with so many threats, Greece welcomed British tourists in April. This month has been extended to all countries. It is also the first EU country to allow people who have not yet been approved by the EU drug regulatory agency or the World Health Organization to be vaccinated with the Russian satellite V vaccine without quarantine.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the Financial Times: “Russia is our important market.” “We strictly abide by EU regulations, but as long as we are welcome to travel in Greece for a week of vaccination I don’t think there is any problem with the tourists of the artificial satellite vaccine.”

The country also uses its own vaccination strategy to ensure that tourist hotspots remain safe. The 32 small islands of Greece have provided full vaccination for their residents and have been declared the first “Covid-free” area in the country. The government plans to vaccinate another 36 medium-sized islands by the end of May and 19 larger islands by the end of June.

But Greece has not set up controls similar to the Balearic Islands during its journey to and from the mainland and its about 100 inhabited islands. Rather, it hopes that the entire country will become the UK’s green list.

British officials said that the latest list to be released early next month will specifically target possible islands and will give priority to the UK’s largest tourism market. Portugal has opened up to tourism and is the only EU country on the UK’s green list.

The Department of Transport of the United Kingdom said: “Like all countries and regions, we are regularly reviewing the data of each island.”

This approach may mean that the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands gave Britain a complete victory before all of Spain.But this may mean a problem for Greece, because the infection rate in Greece is 80% According to data from the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the data is higher than that of Spain.

Sharps told the Financial Times that it is unlikely that “people will have a long waiting time to wait for other countries to join the green list” on the grounds that the EU vaccination plan has made progress.

In any case, Greece is looking for further places. By the end of this month, it will have more flights from the United States than before the pandemic.

“This is not a normal summer,” said Akis Skertsos, assistant to the prime minister. Security is an issue. . . We want visitors to trust us. “