The Popular Parliamentary Group in the Congress of Deputies has urged the Government to "not drop" the national tourism sector and to implement "useful, effective and urgent measures, such as those proposed by the PP".
The Popular Group recalls that accommodation, travel agencies, hotels and the entire business tourism fabric represent 2.6 million direct jobs nationwide. Specifically, the sector invoices more than 150,000 million euros annually, 15% of the national GDP.
"Tourism is a systemic sector of the national economy, the one that contributes the most to national wealth, which cannot be dropped because it would deepen the economic crisis that is coming," recalls the GPP. "The risk of bankruptcy of the Spanish economic and business system is directly proportional to what happens with the tourism industry, so tourism must be a national priority," he remarks.
The Popular Group recalls that, "from day one", it is in permanent contact with the sector to prepare "useful and much-needed measures" in the face of the crisis
generated by COVID-19. "The European PP has already called for a European travel and tourism strategy, which together with the Shock Plan proposed by Pablo Casado for economic reactivation -in which a reduction of all fiscal, labor and bureaucratic costs is proposed-, They must set the roadmap, "he stresses.
The GPP has already presented a battery of questions to the Executive about what it is going to do to help the sector out of this situation. "The opening of Congress was essential, not only to inspect this government, but to put us to work on measures that are urgent and that must be underway imminently," emphasize the popular, "because if income is frozen, we must also freeze expenses ”
In this sense, the Popular Group reiterates "the need for exemption from contributions to the self-employed and from taxes to paralyzed SMEs, in addition to the voluntary postponement of the payment of taxes to anyone affected by the pandemic and compensation for losses in Corporation Tax."
The Government "has mechanisms to immediately make liquidity packages available to the self-employed and SMEs so that they do not close," recalls the GPP, which ensures
that "we are facing an exceptional situation that requires exceptional measures, such as the expansion of the ICO line of credit, providing temporary guarantees to companies that facilitate their access." Also, "it is necessary to guarantee legal certainty in the ERTE, speed up the payment of benefits and cover from the State the cost of economic closure due to the ineffectiveness of the permit and paid vacations"
Inter-ministerial committee on covid-19
The Popular Group also urges the Government to "promote a great joint communication strategy, both exterior and interior, that encourages demand and generates confidence in traveling to Spain in the months following the lifting of the state of alarm."
"All the measures must be condensed in the Interministerial Committee on COVID-19, in which both the institutions – autonomous communities,
Deputations and municipalities – such as the professionals involved and the Parliamentary Groups ”. "We cannot go to a trial and error method because the future of our country's main economic sector is at stake," stresses the GPP, "and so far all decisions have been made without counting those affected."
This inter-ministerial committee "must go further and begin to plan imminently, among other things, all the actions that must be carried out that promote and prioritize a post post-coronavirus plan’ that will facilitate a rapid recovery of the Spanish tourism sector. "
In addition, "we demand that the Government urgently establish the much-announced work table aimed at reviewing, redesigning, updating and improving the Imserso holiday program, in order to avoid further delays for the following season and, in turn , We suggest that Imserso trips interrupted and not enjoyed in these weeks by the state of alarm be resumed in September. ”
Written questions
With a battery of written questions on tourism, the GPP also calls on the Government to say whether "it plans to reduce the VAT rate applicable to activities related to the tourism sector", if it contemplates the implementation of "a promotion plan for recover the Spanish tourism sector after the crisis ”, if it foresees“ some measure aimed at reducing air taxes to improve connectivity ”and if it maintains its intention to establish a new tax on air transport.
With another series of questions, the Popular Group is also interested in the role of Turespaña during the crisis, in the measures planned by the Executive to facilitate the
claim for pending charges for services billed before the declaration of the state of alarm of foreign companies ”.
