May 25, 2020
VOX Asturias has presented a Proposition No of Law (PNL) to the General Meeting of the Principality urging the Government of the Principality to finance 50% of the cost for the tourism and hospitality sector to test its employees. The spokesman, Ignacio Blanco, points out that "the personnel that serve in tourism and hospitality make a very close contact with the client and guaranteeing the absence of COVID-19 in the templates would determine an unprecedented differential fact that would allow Asturias to be offered as a prominent destination for customers seeking the highest standards of health protection. "
In this sense, Ignacio Blanco explains that “the average cost of the tests ranges from 50 euros to 60 euros. Carrying out four biweekly tests on all workers related to tourism and hospitality would not reach 50,000 people, so that the Principality of Asturias will attend to 50% of this program to be carried out between June and July, it would reach a cost of between € 5,000,000 and € 6,000,000, which could be covered with the budget reallocations from the items Promotion of Asturian, Development Cooperation and Emigration, among others ”.
Likewise, the VOX Asturias proposal includes asking the regional government to create the 'COVID-19 Free Tourism and Hospitality' brand in coordination with associations and professionals in the sector, so that establishments, companies, businesses or the self-employed that accredit that all its public service employees have undergone the COVID-19 test program, so they can use it in their promotions.
"The tourism and hospitality sector is a fundamental sector for Asturias, which contributed 2.3 billion euros to the regional economy in 2019, 11% of GDP and employs almost 49,000 Asturians (12.8%)," explains the spokesman. In addition, continues Ignacio Blanco, "tourism in our autonomous community is very seasonal due to a meteorology prone to rain in non-summer periods, so that activity in the summer determines, in many cases, the survival of the sector for the rest of the year".
Measures included in Proposition No of Law (PNL) of VOX Asturias:
Urges the Governing Council to adopt the following measures:
1º.- Authorize Asturian private laboratories to carry out COVID-19 tests on workers in the tourism and hospitality sector who voluntarily wish to submit to them.
2nd.- Budget, with the corresponding budgetary reallocations a program to attend half the cost of a four test program for two months to all tourism and hospitality workers.
3º.- Create a 'Tourism and Hospitality Free of COVID-19' brand, in coordination with the associations and professionals of the sector, so that the establishments, companies, businesses or freelancers that accredit that all their public attention employees have submitted to the COVID-19 test program, you can use it in your promotions.
4º.- Incorporate in the Asturian Tourism Promotion program this program 'COVID-19 Free Tourism and Hospitality'.
