The measure, which will continue throughout the year, aims to encourage the arrival of travellers and to position itself as a safe destination
Fuente: https://www.diariosur.es/turismo/seguro-coronavirus-extranjeros-andalucia-20210107191130-nt.html
Andalusia begins the year by strengthening its position as a safe destination for travel. To this end it has just activated, specifically since last 1st, a free medical insurance with Covid-19 coverage for international non-resident tourists. The Vice-presidency of the Regional Government and the Regional Ministry of Tourism state that in order to benefit from this measure, travellers must be accommodated in any type of regulated establishment in the Community, i.e. hotels, tourist flats, guest houses, hostels, aparthotels, campsites and rural houses. This initiative, with which the Board wishes to encourage the arrival of travellers from outside the borders despite the pandemic, will continue throughout the year, as stated in the award document to Europ Assistance, which was the only company to bid for this contract, worth 700,000 euros.
"This is a free medical insurance policy for all foreign tourists, who are not residents, travelling to Andalusia by any means of transport between 1 January and 31 December and with no age limit", stated the Regional Ministry of Tourism, which warned that this initiative could be extended if necessary. The only condition is to stay in a regulated establishment so that international travellers arriving at any Andalusian destination have their medical, surgical and hospitalisation expenses covered by Covid-19, their transport and repatriation expenses and the costs arising from an extended stay due to quarantine. In addition, tourists will have at their disposal a 'call center' to be attended 24 hours a day in several languages.
The Regional Ministry of Tourism points out that with this measure "we are responding to a demand from the sector. We are encouraging the revival of international tourism and we are making our offer attractive and different". In this sense, they also highlight that they support the regulated accommodation, which they assure that "it is having a worse time at the moment, to encourage its reopening and the generation of business especially in areas such as the coast and in some capitals, where international tourism is more important". Among them is the Costa del Sol.
Although they consider it impossible to estimate the number of beneficiaries, given the impact of the Covid-19 and the restrictions on mobility, they do point out that in a normal year we would be talking about more than 11 million international travellers accommodated in the Andalusian regulated offer.
The Board advances that they will develop a specific international communication campaign to promote the insurance, in the areas that present greater accessibility to the community. The objective is "to align Andalusia with the current trend, where in addition to offering tourist experiences, destinations must sell values and the most appreciated by tourists today is safety. Safe brokers, pre- and post-trip tests, stamps and tourist certificates are conditioning the choice of travel and the Andalusian offer with this insurance, and the rest of the actions undertaken in this area are becoming more competitive in order to capture this demand", the Regional Ministry points out.
