The Ministry of Industry and Tourism is in talks with the Ministry of the Interior for one of the effects of the call for general elections on July 23 and is the fact that people who already have a hotel reservation or a paid ticket can claim it in case of being called to be part of a polling station.
"The casuistry is very broad and we are in talks with the Interior, which is the one who leads the organization in this short term, in case it can be raised to the Electoral Board," said this morning the Minister of Industry, Héctor Gómez, at a breakfast in which he presented the data on tourist arrivals in the first quarter of the year. "All possibilities are weighed," he insisted.
The general elections of July 23 will be held in the middle of the tourist season and, in addition, bridge in several communities since on July 25 Santiago apostle is celebrated. Last year the Ministry of Industry counted with data from the INE around 19 million trips by Spaniards during the month of July, 1.8 million of them were abroad. Gómez has not specified what formulas can be studied by the Electoral Board but the difference between trips and reservations in national territory, as is the case of most Spaniards who go on vacation in July, and trips abroad is evident.
The minister has indicated on the other hand that he does not expect that there will be a relevant alteration of tourist reservations due to the fact of the electoral appointment, since in electoral calls of an autonomous nature held on these dates there has not been a significant decrease in participation.
The draw to be part of the polling stations in these elections will be held between Saturday, June 24 and Wednesday, June 28. Once the members of the bureaux have been elected, the interested parties will receive the notification at their homes within three days. Among the exemptions considered by the Electoral Board to participate in the table is the concurrence on the day of the election of relevant family events (up to the second degree of consanguinity) that cannot be postponed or in which the postponement causes significant economic damage. But not tourist reservations for holidays.
Gómez also recalled that there are tools that guarantee participation such as postal voting, which this year is expected to rise above normal since the 23-J is the first call that takes place in the middle of the summer, although they have occurred at the beginning, in the month of June. In fact, seven weeks before the appointment, Correos has already received these days the first requests to vote remotely, in a higher proportion than usual. Only the census abroad exceeds two million voters, to which should be added the more than 1.5 million who voted by mail in previous elections. In certain territories such as Asturias or Galicia, postal voting represents almost 30% of the electorate.
In any case, the Government has reiterated that it does not expect the event to alter the tourist season, which is on track to surpass the pre-pandemic data in the number of foreign visitors and beat another record with between 52 and 54 million visitors between May and October. In terms of revenue, it will undoubtedly be the campaign with the highest volume in the history of this industry in Spain since in the first four months there has been an expenditure by visitors of 25,681 million euros, 20% more than before the pandemic. This bill obviously includes the effect of inflation and sharp price increases in both air tickets and hotel rooms.
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