On Friday, the president of the CAEB Confederation of Balearic Business Associations, Carmen Planas, described as "pioneering" the idea of a pilot scheme for reviving international tourism into Balearic airports from mid-June. It will, she stated, "generate confidence among tourists".
Planas said that the proposal that has been made to the Spanish government stems from "internationally recognised knowhow in the Balearics" and from the responsibility of the islands for "tourism leadership". The aims, she added, will be "to set an example" for other tourism destinations in Spain and to open Balearic airports to foreign tourism, "with the necessary health guarantees", in July.
The CAEB president explained that the confederation had proposed the creation of "safe corridors" to the regional government on Monday this week, with the idea that the government would in turn raise the possibility with Madrid. "We have the support of the regional government and of the unions as well as the involvement of the entire tourism value chain." On Friday, the national interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, voiced his support for the idea of safe corridors.
On Thursday, President Armengol told the national transport minister, José Luis Ábalos, and the national tourism minister, Reyes Maroto, that the Balearics are ready to start pilot flights in the second half of June.
Regarding the Spanish government's quarantine, Planas expressed "business concern as it goes against the recovery of tourism in the Balearics". "Rather than benefiting tourism, it harms tourism." She urged the Spanish government to address tourism recovery "with specific measures for the sector and for the entire value chain that it represents".
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How reassuring for those first tourists to know that they are being used as 'tests' (effectively human guinea pigs) to see how the 'new normal' works...or doesn't!!