The Diplomat
The Secretary of State for Global Spain, Manuel Muñiz, yesterday held a meeting with the Tourism Commission of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in which an initiative of the Spanish Government before the OECD was discussed to guarantee “safe international mobility” and in which the sector called for vaccinations against COVID-19 to be speeded up in order to save the upcoming summer tourist season.
During the meeting, which took place virtually, Muñiz explained the details of the initiative presented on 15 December in Paris by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, during the opening ceremony of the event commemorating the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Convention. On that occasion, the President explained that Spain had decided to promote, from this organisation, an initiative to achieve greater multilateral coordination in the design of an international mobility strategy, since the OECD “can complement European forums by bringing international actors, both public and private, to the table”, and he specified that the results of this initiative will be included in a proposal to be presented at a high-level conference in early February 2021.
“It is a matter of establishing homogeneous criteria at a global level to guarantee international mobility in a safe manner, one of the greatest conditions for recovering economic activity in general and the tourism sector in particular”, Muñiz explained to the Tourism Committee, quoted by the Chamber of Commerce in a press release. “Out of responsibility, and regardless of the progress of the vaccination campaign, the safety scaffolding for international travel will have to be maintained over time”, until more evidence is available about the duration of the immunity provided by the vaccine, the Secretary of State warned.
For his part, the Chairman of the Tourism Commission of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Corporate Director of Iberia, Juan Cierco, reiterated to the Secretary of State some of the proposals that the Commission has been calling for, such as the establishment of safe corridors that guarantee minimum mobility between countries, the adoption of measures that will help companies in the sector to survive – such as extending the ERTES – and, above all, the acceleration of the vaccination campaign “to reach the month of August with a percentage of the population immunised, which will allow the summer tourist season to be saved”.
