Alex Trelinski
TOURISM revenues on the Costa Blanca and the Valencian Community collapsed by €11 billion in 2020 according to the Exceltur association.
An impact study commissioned by Exceltur shows that the COVID-19 pandemic slashed tourist income by over 61% from the 2019 high of €17.8 billion.
One crumb of comfort is that the region’s fall was 9% less than the Spanish national average.
Exceltur has 34 leading tourism-related companies amongst its group in the region.
The association’s’ vice-president, Jose Luis Zoreda, has called for a ‘shock plan’ to kick-start the industry and today(December 28) sent a copy of the report to Valencian president, Ximo Puig.
He has demanded help for the sector to keep it afloat ‘until the first green shoots appear’.
Jose Luis Zoreda said: “Vaccines have opened a horizon of hope, but we are far from being able to say that we are on the way to recovery.”
“The first green shoots are not in sight before the summer and we have a long journey in the desert,” he observed.
Luis Zoreda described a national plan recently announced by the Madrid government as ‘unrealistic’.
“We don’t want viable companies to disappear over the next few months and we are not after more help than other countries are offering,” he added.
The Exceltur vice-president pointed out that the figures show that the Valencian Community has the highest economic dependence on tourism of any mainland area, behind the Balearic and Canary Islands.
Valencian president, Ximo Puig, is said to be open to discussions and is quoted as saying ‘we are going to talk and seek answers’.
