Emergency measures for Alicante’s tourism industry

These were adopted as a response to United Kingdom’s quarantine for travelers from Spain

The Plenary of the Alicante Municipality unanimously adopted a package of measures today which aim to show support for the city’s tourism industry. This comes in the wake of British government decision to impose quarantine restrictions on travelers coming from or returning from mainland Spain, excluding the Canary and Balearic Islands.

The document shows that Alicante authorities are concerned about local tourism economy

Recently the British government decided to reimpose quarantine restrictions on holiday goers returning from Peninsular Spain. This, combined with the announcement made by TUI tour operator that it will cancel flights to the Iberian country until 9 August, has wreaked havoc among the Spanish hospitality industry.

The above decisions have been motivated by the increasing rates of Covid-19 infections in Spain, which has also caused a big city like Barcelona to reimpose recently some of the social distancing measures from earlier months.

Alicante Vice-Mayor and Councillor of Tourism, Mari Carmen Sánchez, however, is bewildered by these acts, declaring that “Alicante has a lower Covid incidence than Great Britain itself, so the decision does not seem justified with the objective data currently available. For this reason, we need the Alicante-Elche airport to be exempted from the disproportionate decision of the British government”.

The Institutional Statement, which is a document showing the resolve of the municipal authorities to seek measures and advocate for the interests of the local tourist industry is also directed at the national government in Madrid. They are asked to extend support for temporary lay-offs owed to the crisis until 31 December 2020. Failing to do so might engender long-term unemployment.

Other measures which Alicante authorities see as necessary to stimulate tourism in the Levante are lowering airport taxes by 50% and cutting tourist VAT tax from 10% down to 4%.