Iago Negueruela chairing Tuesday's meeting.

Iago Negueruela chairing Tuesday's meeting. | Govern de les Illes Balears

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma08/09/2020 18:19
TW
2

Balearic tourism minister Iago Negueruela has welcomed the UK government's decision to assess the situation with coronavirus infections on islands. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has said that enhanced data will allow the UK "to pinpoint risk in some of the most popular islands, providing increased flexibility to add or remove them, distinct from the mainland, as infection rates change".

The Balearic government has continued working on re-establishing safe corridors with the UK. To this end, Negueruela has been in regular contact with the national secretary of state for tourism, Fernando Valdés. They are now considering the "new situation" created by the UK government's announcement.

Treating the islands separately "was something that we called for earlier in the summer," said Negueruela on Tuesday. The UK's change in policy is "good news", although he recognised that it was important to reduce the rate of infection in the Balearics "as soon as possible". "The first thing we must do is reduce our infection rate, but this decision by the British government allows us to see a horizon and start preparing well for 2021."

Negueruela was speaking after a meeting with the president and vice-president of the Majorca Hoteliers Federation, Maria Frontera and María José Aguiló, the tourism and economic model directors-general, Rosana Morillo and Llorenç Pou, and top officials from the Aetib tourism strategy agency. Under discussion was, for example, reinforcing the image of a safe destination overseas in the short and medium terms.