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A representation of the Tourism Cluster of Galicia participated in an online meeting with the Regional Ministry of Economy, Employment and Industry and the Regional Ministry of Culture and Tourism to provide them with a set of specific proposals for a sector that represents 10.4% of the Galician GDP

The president of the CTG stressed that the sector will face a very different scenario after the coronavirus and needs tools to adapt to changes in tourism demand and consumer habits

Within the context of the meetings that the Tourism Cluster of Galicia has been holding with the different departments and administrations linked to the sector, this afternoon a representation of the Tourism Cluster of Galicia led by its president, Cesáreo Pardal, held a telematic meeting with the heads of Culture and Tourism and with Economy, Employment and Industry, Román Rodríguez and Francisco Conde, with the aim of providing them with a series of measures in the economic, fiscal and labour field specifically aimed at the Galician tourism sector.

“We understand that it is necessary to take specific measures for our sector to mitigate as much as possible the impact of the coronavirus on the business network of the Galician tourism sector; measures aimed at maintaining employment, helping the self-employed, injecting liquidity, making fiscal policies more flexible, reviewing rules and regulations and boosting the resilience of all members of the sector, helping them reinvent themselves and redirecting business models to a very different reality that we will find after the coronavirus,” explained Pardal.

Flexibility and liquidity summarize the set of measures presented this afternoon in the joint meeting held with Román Rodríguez and Francisco Conde. These proposals complement those presented by the CTG to the Xunta in March. Among them, the Cluster emphasized requesting extensions for the ERTEs due to a major cause after the state of alarm and the exemption of not reducing staff in the 6 months after the end of the ERTE since the companies will not have demand to maintain these staff.

With regard to fiscal policies, the CTG is requesting the postponement of Social Security and VAT payments for all companies and self-employed workers for as long as possible and without cost, as well as a reduction in the deadlines for the reimbursement of payments that are to be returned, in addition to facilities for accessing financing.
“The sector transfers difficulties and obstacles to us to accede to aids of the IGAPE reason why we requested that this lines of financing adapt to the reality of the tourist sector, making agile bureaucratic procedures, adapting the requirements to the Galician enterprise reality and making flexible lines of aid”, explained the representatives of the CTG.

Training and labour reinsertion

The need for both departments of the Xunta to work towards the implementation of policies for the reintegration into the labour market and the acquisition of skills through training for workers in the tourism sector who have to relocate to other sectors was also conveyed to both councillors. In this sense, they demanded recycling and skills acquisition programs, commitment to entrepreneurship and the study of the implementation of an accelerator of reference and regional scope.

Finally, and facing the situation of the sector post coronavirus, the representation of the Cluster highlighted the need to bet more than ever on the implementation of ICT in the tourism company to adapt to changes in tourism demand and consumer habits, providing them with greater capacity for reinvention and reorientation of business models. In addition, they reminded the Xunta of the need to bet decisively on the implementation of the Laboratory of Tourist Innovation of Galicia, which would make possible the effective arrival of these innovations to the tourist enterprise.