CEHAT see the rate of vaccination in other destinations as a threat to Spain

The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) warned yesterday that the rhythm and efficiency in the vaccination strategy of direct competitive destinations in Europe, such as Greece, Turkey, and Croatia, puts Spain's competitiveness as a safe tourist destination at risk for this summer season.

"Our competitors are overtaking us, so the measures we propose are essential to save the season, since travellers will bet on safe destinations where there are high levels of vaccination," said the president of CEHAT, Jorge Marichal.

The Association insists on the need to include the risk of exposure in all sectors within the vaccination plan, that is, once the most sensitive groups have been vaccinated, the most exposed are immunized next, not necessarily the next age group.

Greece, Croatia and Turkey, strong competitors of Spain for the summer season, are applying similar measures and have resolved to vaccinate workers in the tourism sector as a priority, also determining, in some cases, to immunize those who have direct contact with tourists first.

Currently Spain have given almost 15 million vaccinations with 3.8 million (8.2% of population) having had two doses. Greece have given 2.95 million jabs with 881,000 (also 8.2% of population) having had two doses, Turkey who start a full lockdown today until May 17^th, have given 21.7 million vaccinations, with 8.3 million people (10.1% of population) having had two doses.

Finally, Croatia, which only has a small population, have given 813,000 vaccines with 173,000 (4.3% of population) having received two doses. The concern is that because they are smaller countries with smaller populations (very much like the Canary Islands), they can easily reach 70% quicker than Spain if we don’t speed up our own progress.