Juan Marín advocates "continuing to establish communication channels with the collaboration of travel agencies
The Vice-President of the Andalusian Regional Government and Minister of Tourism, Regeneration, Justice and Local Administration, Juan Marín, has reported on the idea of extending the tourist voucher, which is already in operation, with agreements with other autonomous communities and neighbouring countries. In particular, he pointed out that talks have already been established with autonomous cities and Portugal, where "it seems that they could be receptive", he said, although he acknowledged that "nothing is closed".
This was communicated at a press conference, where he indicated that the line now is to "continue to establish communication channels with the collaboration of travel agencies". In this regard, the Vice-president also reported on the agreement between the Ministry of Tourism, the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies (CEAV) and the Union of Travel Agents (UNAV) to strengthen and reactivate the tourism sector in the community.
The agreement is based on collaboration with travel agencies and points of sale authorised for the sale of package tours to Andalusia, the implementation of conferences and conventions for the sector, among others. In this sense, and after the meeting with representatives of both associations, he considered that "intermediation plays a very important role" in this. "Of the 32.5 million travellers who arrived in 2019, 20.7 per cent did so after purchasing a package tour or combination of tours through a travel agency," he said.
Specifically, he detailed some of the product packages with which he intends "to be able to recover the sector and the tourist levels of 2019", such as the 'Origin and Destination' project, which is aimed at a market interested in culture, gastronomy, landscape or the environment; 'Andalusia leaves its mark' or 'Andalusia is flamenco', "another sign of identity where we are very interested in the international market and where agencies are the interlocutors when it comes to helping tourists reach our community".
This meeting "was very necessary for the time we are in", Marín pointed out, and the objectives that the Regional Ministry has set for 2020 and 2021 have been transferred, since "travel agencies are essential when it comes to connecting travellers with their destination, in this case Andalusia, and for this reason their daily work is fundamental and we have wanted to reflect this by establishing these collaboration agreements not only in the organisation of congresses and conferences, but also when it comes to highlighting the new products that we are bringing to the markets".
An "open and flexible" bonus
In this sense, he has valued the Andalusian Tourist Voucher "because the positive effects are beginning to be seen". "We want the voucher to be an open and flexible voucher that adapts to the needs of the market in a situation like the current one". For this reason, he recalled the extension that is going to be discussed in the Governing Council for a 50% discount for families with an income of less than 22,000 euros; as well as the same help for people with disabilities of 33% or more, because "we also want to commit to inclusive tourism", he said.
Along these lines, the head of Tourism in Andalusia insisted that the Andalusian government "would have loved this bonus to have been made at a national level", but in view of this impossibility "we do not rule out reaching agreements with other autonomous communities or even with neighbouring countries that would like to commit to this tool that has come to the tourism sector to stay and that will have a very important development to motivate mobility and activate consumption during the years that will follow this crisis".
In the case of the international market, Marín pointed out that it is "fundamental" to prioritise safety, and for this reason, he recalled, from the 1st of January, travellers who come to Andalusia will have an insurance policy "to cover any circumstance caused by the COVID. Everything necessary so that any travel agency can sell a safe destination and so that any airline can recover flights to Andalusia", he concluded.
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