Alex Trelinski
COSTA BLANCA hoteliers have blamed the UK travel quarantine for reduced August bookings and have called for a Europe-wide system of working out travel restrictions.
Toni Mayor of the Costa Blanca and Benidorm hotel association, Hosbec, made the demand during a meeting in Benidorm between regional tourism groups and Spain’s secretary of state for tourism, Fernando Valdes.
Mayor said the imposition of a two-week quarantine for British travellers returning from Spain was a game-changer for the Costa Blanca.
“We began August with a lot of hotel reservations but the UK quarantine ruined everything despite the fact that the health situation was quite good in our area,” Mayor said.
“You cannot crush the economy of an entire country when there are areas that are fine and to which people could continue travelling to,” he continued.
He called for the setting up of a unified surveillance system throughout the EU and the UK which would monitor COVID-19 cases and introduce quarantines based on regions and not countries.
Mayor asked Fernando Valdes to pass on his suggestion to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez so that he in turn could raise the matter with the European Commission.
“We need to maintain travel and tourism in the most sensible and rational way until a vaccine becomes available,” Mayor concluded.
