• Controversy: The Generalitat is suspicious of the value of the Spain Brand for Catalan tourism for managing the coronavirus crisis
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The Catalan Tourism Agency (ACT) of the Generalitat of Catalonia will launch in June a promotional campaign aimed at the Spanish market that will appeal to "emotional ties". At a time when the coronavirus crisis will hinder traditional summer mobility between countries and aware that the visitor now values ​​social distancing and nature, the director of International Markets of the ACT, Maria Pons , admitted yesterday at a telematic seminar in Girona that the Spanish public is "the first to be addressed".

Uncertainty has gripped the tourism sector. With the borders closed and vehicle mobility between provinces, the large hotel plant of the central Costa Daurada - Salou, Cambrils and La Pineda concentrate almost 20,000 rooms - will not open in the coming weeks due to a lack of potential customers. "Another issue is that smaller hotels in cities such as Tarragona and Reus open, or other smaller towns that are dedicated to hosting clients for work issues and complete it with tourists," they explain from the Tarragona Hospitality and Tourism Federation (FEHT ). The entrepreneurs of the large hotel chains have their sights set on the week of San Juan (June 24), when the start of phase 3 allows travel between provinces. The hope is to open progressively, despite the reduced services, restaurants, hotels, campsites and apartments. "We would like to be able to work with some normality in July and August, so that our most loyal visitors to the Catalan, Spanish, French, German and Dutch markets -all those who can come by road- can stay, go to the beaches, visit the monuments, buy in stores ... and we will try to extend until September and October, if possible with some of the sporting events we had planned for this Easter ".

Despite the fact that they operate with a very different product, the large resort campsites in Tarragona also foresee that the reopening will be delayed, probably until mid-June in the best of scenarios. Today, the Association of Campings of the Costa Daurada and Terres de l'Ebre, like those of the rest of the Mediterranean coast, focus on the balance between the most demanding health guarantees, both for customers and employees, without losing the added value of camping experience. Particular concern is given to the specific application of sanitation protocols in aquatic areas, terraces, entertainment shows, restaurants and common toilet areas. "We assume that we will have to reinvent ourselves, as we have always done, for an opening with all the guarantees and reduced services, but always maintaining the essence of our product: sun, oxygen, a good atmosphere, freedom and disconnection", predicts Àngels Ferré , president de Campings del Mediterráneo, a confederation that brings together Spanish campsites from Girona to Alicante.

According to specialists, rural tourism is going to be one of the great beneficiaries of a demand that flees from overcrowded spaces and seeks virgin natural environments. In this sense, the south of Tarragona and Terres de l'Ebre do offer availability from this month of their varied offer of accommodation. Meanwhile, in Girona, the maintenance of the closure of borders mainly with France, as well as the limitation of movements at the provincial level, keeps the Costa Brava tourism sector in a nervous stand-by .

As explained by the president of the Associació d'Apartaments Turístics de la Costa Brava i Pirineu (ATA), Lluís Parera , “if between 80 and 90% of our clients, which correspond to foreign tourists and from outside Girona , they cannot access the Costa Brava, it does not make sense that we start our businesses now because with the internal demand of the province it is not enough ».

"At the moment we are installing posters to remind future clients of the need for social distancing, and sending employees to training courses so that they know what safety and hygiene measures they will find once they rejoin," adds the vice president. from the Girona Camping Association, Josep Maria Pla .

However, if there is a tourist destination on the Costa Brava that has been thoroughly prepared, that is Lloret de Mar, whose City Council together with the unions and tourism companies in the municipality have prepared a comprehensive plan with safety and health protocols for the long-awaited summer season that, among others, establishes the division of its two main beaches into areas for the elderly, for families with children and for adults who go alone, as a couple or with a group of friends; the increase in public space for terraces; or the redistribution of clients on the camping pitches to guarantee their distance.

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  • Girona
  • Tarragona
  • Spain
  • Alicante
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  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
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  • tourism

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