Antonio Morales calls for joint reflection and action to reactivate the tourism sector of Gran Canaria in the face of the pandemic

The president of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, has today called on institutions, experts, academics, businessmen and society in general to reflect and act together to face the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. with the purpose of reactivating the tourism sector of the Island.

 

“Although the health crisis overshadows everything, there are many challenges that the tourism sector must face in the coming years. For this reason, the Cabildo maintains its commitment to analysis and participation. We have a strategic plan that establishes this. But, above all, we must work together, so that the resilience and resistance of our main economic and employment sector are strengthened, to take firm steps towards new sustainable models. Towards an eco-island”, he remarked, at the opening of the IX Maspalomas Costa Canaria International Tourism Forum, which is being held, today and tomorrow, at the Expomeloneras Congress Palace, in San Bartolomé de Tirajana.

 

In his speech, he recalled how, during last summer, tourist demand and connectivity were activated in Gran Canaria. “So much tourism arrived that we had to ask AENA to guarantee adequate attention to the specific increases in visitors at the airport,” she noted. “We went from zero to one hundred percent occupancy and vice versa. And once again we find ourselves reliving the uncertainties in issuing countries. Therefore, this analysis meeting on the tourism sector is more necessary and timely, given what is going to be the third year of Covid-19.”

 

And it is that, in this context, in which the end of the pandemic does not seem close, the president of the Government of Gran Canaria has stressed the need to assume the transformations that are taking place in all areas and that will remain, perhaps forever. Some changes for which, in his opinion, the conclusions reached in this same forum, in December 2020, are still very valid, when tourism was conceived as “a resilient and resistant activity in various crisis situations”, which drags the various economic sectors, “which makes it strategic,” he said. “Without tourism there is no economy and, without an economy, there are not enough funds to finance the health system that protects us.”

 

He also recalled the success of those who, in that edition, foreshadowed the risk of "prolonged paralysis of the sector, depending on the planned vaccination of the population on the planet." Something that is actually happening. “The recovery will be slow and progressive,” he predicted. "The period of adaptation to the new reality is constantly altered by the instability of the situation by territory, which introduces new elements of uncertainty, due to the disparity of criteria and mobility restrictions."

 

“The message that resonated then was the word 'adaptation.' And we adapt. Responsibly. We have gone from being the country with the worst data, in the first wave, to being the one with the largest vaccinated population. But the virus continues to travel the planet, mutating and without global action being taken to stop it,” she emphasized. “It makes no sense that, while we are going to administer a third dose and a children's dose is going to be distributed, millions of people have not received any. We are the country with the highest vaccination rate in the world and, paradoxically, we are next to the African continent, where barely 7% of people are vaccinated. Which shows us one cause, another one, to understand the immigration crisis that affects us.”

 

And if that 2020 event “was a hopeful moment”, as Morales has described, “a year later, the Maspalomas International Tourism Forum once again conjures up the pandemic. It brings us together in a safe environment, such as our tourism sector. As is the Canary Islands.” 

 

This IX International Tourism Forum of Maspalomas Costa Canaria, which has been organized by the City Council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, the Government of the Canary Islands and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with the collaboration of the Organization Tourism World, brings together more than 300 business leaders, governments and experts in the field, who debate innovative solutions for the sector, focused on key elements such as sustainability and inclusion.