Cluster

The president of the CTG participated in the joint presentation of the Reactivation Plan for the tourism and cultural sector in the face of the effects of COVID 19, which will be announced in its entirety in the coming days

Pardal stressed the necessary cooperation of the sector with the different administrations for the implementation of measures that make economically viable the reopening of a sector that still demands agility in the aids and clarity in the protocols

The president of the Cluster Tourism of Galicia, Cesáreo Pardal, participated this morning in a seminar promoted by the Xunta de Galicia to present the Reactivation Plan of the tourist and cultural sector against the effects of the COVID 19 elaborated jointly by the Xunta de Galicia with the tourist and cultural sector. The president of the Xunta, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, presented this plan that will start this month of May, always according to the calendar that the Government establishes in the de-escalation, accompanied by the conselleiros of Culture and Tourism, Román Rodríguez, the conselleiro of Economy and Employment, Francisco Conde and the director of Tourism of Galicia, Nava Castro.

A plan worth 27 million euros which, as announced by Núñez Feijóo, has five objectives focused on making Galicia a safe destination through the creation of protocols and health certificates that respond to the new reality, recovering confidence in the Galicia brand based on all its environmental attributes and tourism resources; reinforcing the training of professionals in the sector and creating new tourism products and new solutions focused on the reality that has emerged as a result of this pandemic. Finally, both the President and the Regional Minister of Culture also highlighted that the plan includes the redesign of a campaign to promote Galicia, especially aimed at domestic tourism and the programme Queda en Galicia (Stay in Galicia).

The roadmap proposed by the Xunta that will be released in full in the coming days consists of a total of 47 measures and is the result of more than 60 meetings with various administrations and agents in the sector in which 70% of the proposals that the sector has moved to the Xunta have been collected. In this sense, the president of the Cluster Tourism of Galicia was optimistic with the principles of this plan and with its immediate implementation as they clearly contemplate the three main concerns that are pressing at this time the tourism sector: liquidity to give economic viability to companies in this process of de-escalation, the flexibility of the ERTES and the need to have clear protocols, concise and agreed with the sector, in addition to the implementation of promotional campaigns and to restore the confidence of travelers and training programs for the sector.

“A door has been opened to us towards optimism, to save part of this year but this door has also been opened with shadows. We are concerned about how de-escalation will take place, both in the calendar and in the measures that accompany it. In addition to the announcement of the flexibility of the ERTES, which has not yet been published in the BOE, we need agility in the aid and greater precision in the rest of the measures, since as we are, the opening is economically unviable for the vast majority of businessmen in the sector,” explained the president of the CTG in the webinar.

A plan by and for the tourism sector
In this sense, Cesáreo Pardal also highlighted the importance of providing the sector with clear information and thanked the Xunta for having relied on the sector from the very beginning, giving rise to a plan which, as the President of the Xunta pointed out, “is a plan made by the tourism sector and for the tourism sector”. What all the participants of the seminar agreed on was to emphasize the need for health safety first, since without it there is no economic activity possible, so it will be essential to be responsible to avoid outbreaks that will make us go backwards.

The overlap between health safety, economic activity and the tourism sector is more evident than ever and that is why it will be essential, once again, to coordinate between administrations and with the sector itself, which now more than ever works to be the image of Galicia abroad. “If the tourism sector fails in Galicia, the whole of Galicia fails”, said the president of the Xunta, emphasizing the importance of this sector for the whole of the Galician economy, which represents almost 12% of the Galician tourism GDP.