The government wants to down play Covid to a flu while the focus is on tourism

The government wants to down play Covid to a flu while the focus is on tourism | R.L.

Humphrey CarterPalma18/01/2022 10:35
TW
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Balearic and Spanish tourism authorities have been banging on about the country being a safe and secure destination for holiday makers with all the correct Covid measures in place.
So much so that the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said last week that countries need to start treating this as “an endemic disease rather than a pandemic.”

His Health Minister, Carolina Darias, said: “We have to go from an emergency-style vigilance to one of better quality and which is compatible with other respiratory phenomena. Spain wants to lead this debate.”

The WHO and other countries do not agree, many feel it is still a bit too soon with case numbers still very high.

However, this approach may play out very well this week at the Fitur travel fair in Madrid, Spain’s largest.

Spain recorded more than 180,000 positive cases of the virus last week, yet at the same time a European industry association predicted that the country could reach 88 percent of its tourism rate this year that it had pre-pandemic.

Tourism experts Exceltur said it expects the second-most visited country in the world prior to the pandemic to grow to almost 90 percent this year after it stalled at 57 percent in 2021. Fingers crossed the industry and the politicians get it right, but it’s a gamble that could have a sting in its tail.