Cluster

Tourism professionals consider it a priority to implement special measures to make taxes more flexible and to provide direct incentives to alleviate the hard blow that companies in the sector are suffering.

“The recovery of consumer confidence in the medium term is of vital importance and we insist on the need to take measures that will allow us to save the summer season when the health crisis is overcome,” stresses the president of the CTG

In order to contribute to mitigate the hard economic impact that the coronavirus crisis will have on the global economy, and evidently on the Galician economy, with a special effect on the tourist sector in our territory, the Galician Tourism Cluster has prepared a series of complementary proposals of an economic nature that could be key to the recovery of the tourist sector in the medium term, based on the proposals of its members.

“We are sure that the tourism sector will be one of the most punished, and above all, we are concerned about the effects that this global pandemic will have on tourist travel in the medium term, directly impacting on the economic results of this year 2020 of hundreds and hundreds of companies that do not have the capacity to endure many months without activity”, explains the president of the Cluster Tourism of Galicia, Cesáreo Pardal, who insists on emphasizing that they are aware that the different administrations are effectively leading the fight against this world crisis, firstly from a health point of view, but also with measures that mitigate the economic consequences of this catastrophe.

“The recovery of consumer confidence in the medium term is of vital importance and we insist on the need to take measures that will allow us to save the summer season when the health crisis is overcome,” stresses the president of the CTG. From this entity they have made arrive to the Consellería de Cultura e Turismo a series of complementary proposals to the measures of economic incentive that have already started, as they can be campaigns of promotion of Galicia with additional endowment (that we consider essential in the moment of recovery of the demand) or direct incentives to the companies and the consumers to stimulate consumption, flexibility in the payments to the administration are some ideas already formulated from the Cluster Tourism of Galicia.

Among these measures, the Cluster requests, for example, that the application of the ERTE situation due to force majeure can be requested by all tourism sectors, and not only in those forced to close (bars, restaurants and probably soon accommodation …), such as travel agencies. They also urge the local authorities to apply discounts and exemptions from their local taxes (IBI, IAE, Terrace Tax, commercial waste collection, etc.)

As far as the regional administration is concerned, the report prepared by the CTG calls for extraordinary extensions to be provided for the implementation of agreements and subsidies for tourism companies and their sector associations, in addition to financing a short-term campaign to ensure that hotel and tourist places are not cancelled but rather transferred, both from the point of view of public communication and by financing discounts in the event of transfer of the reservation or by maintaining pre-crisis prices.

Finally, the CTG requests that consideration be given to the creation of a special economic fund for liquidity problems arising from trip returns and cancellations, which are particularly intense in the case of the tourism sector, in addition to taking into account the role that travel agencies are playing in the process of repatriating tourists to their countries of origin, as well as hotels with their long-term guests. In the same vein, the entity requests flexibility in the application of the Community directive on “package travel” by facilitating refunds with vouchers or deposits that allow the postponement of trips, which would allow work on two major fronts: increasing the recovery of destinations (cancelled trips would be postponed helping to stimulate demand at the time of rescheduling) and at the same time generating financial relief for the travel agency sector.

From the Cluster Tourism of Galicia its president emphasizes, finally, the importance of beginning to undertake some of these measures in the short term, working with foresight to alleviate the situation to which the sector is doomed, recovering the confidence of the traveler and stimulating the tourist activity to face with better perspectives what remains of this 2020.