The Almuñécar Tourism Board and the Hoteleros de la Costa Tropical had an online video natter and came up with an idea… Make the municipality a restart guinea pig.

We’ll explain what that entails but first mention what prompted it, which was the news that tourism is at the back of the queue for being allowed to reopen – and we’re talking about the end of the year.

“We are completely aware and share the premises that health comes first when decisions are made, therefore it must dictate the time scale and order of winding down the quarantine measures, but we consider that the announcement y the Central Government] was premature and alarmist,” explained the Board, adding, “The tourism sector is 80% of our [the municipality’s] economic activity and has a knock-on effect on other local sectors.”

For this reason, the Board considers, the municipality of Almuñécar and La Herradura cannot take a summer with no tourism, as a consequence of the end-of-the-year timeline announced by the Government. Such a delay would mean, “the ruination of the sector and an irrecoverable cataclysm upon the municipality’s business & economic network.” In other words, it would roger the local economy.

For the above reason, the Board demands the following from the Ministerio de Industria, Comercio and Turismo (on a state, regional and provincial level):

“Consistency and seriousness in the communiqué from the various administration concerning the reactivation of the tourism sector with the conclusion of the State of Alarm, since the Central Government has demonstrated a lack of understanding concerning the workings of the tourism sector by proposing that it should wait until the end of the year before restarting.”

The rest of the declaration does appear to be a list of pop shots at the Central Government (as is the above) but the last paragraph is the relative one here.

“Owing to the low figures for the pandemic in our comarca [local area], the type of [tourist] destination and the professionalism of the tourism entrepreneurs in the municipality, we wish to pass on our offer to all the relative administration to be a pilot scheme for tourism for the staggered, post-Lock-Down, start-up, undertaking all the safety, hygiene and health measures deemed necessary.”

In other words, they’re offering Almuñécar and La Herradura as a test bed for reopening hotels & restaurants etc, so that the town can reopen such establishments well ahead of the present timetable of the end of the years.

(News: Almunecar/Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)