On Thursday, the president of the Mesa del Turismo, Joan Molas, demanded that the Spanish government accelerates the vaccination process so that 70% of the population can be vaccinated by the summer and tourism can be reactivated.
Molas was speaking at a summit of organizations representing various sectors of the tourism industry – hospitality, nightlife, airlines, cruises, holiday rentals and more. He said that the government has an “obligation” to accelerate the vaccination program. “If it is done well, efficiently and intelligently, 70% of the population can be reached.” This percentage, I have stated, would mean that part of the population is “out of danger” and that there could be a tourism season.
I have called for all available resources to be mobilized – from private health to the army, hotel facilities, conventions’ sites and even fleets of buses. The tourism industry, I have stressed, is willing to help by providing spaces for vaccination. Workers in the tourism industry, he argued, should be one of the vaccination priority groups, as this would allow businesses to open up safely.
Molas highlighted the importance of a vaccination passport to facilitate international mobility and was of the view that if the rate of vaccination increases and the health situation improves, Spain could receive 45 million tourists. These would be just over half the total in 2019. He doubted that there would be full recovery before 2022 or even 2023.
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