10 Mar 2020

CHALLENGES 2020 for the tourism sector.

NEW CONTAINMENT SCENARIO CoVid-19

Catalonia continues in this scenario of containment of the CoVid-19 and, as the days go by, the preventive and containment measures that aim to prevent the spread of the virus are being updated or expanded. This conjunctural situation affects all economic activity and social life in the country.
As a destination, tourist services, accommodation and mobility also apply measures both to limit crowds and to ensure proper hygiene and disinfection of the common spaces they occupy. In the case of transport, following the recommendations of both the WHO and the Department of Health, Avant Grup has implemented the necessary practices in each of its work centers to ensure prevention against any possible risk of CoVid-19 transmission, while applying preventive measures for a thorough cleaning of vehicles at the end of each of the services that may be provided during each day.
To help reduce the spread of infection, all driving personnel should perform additional cleaning checks on all vehicles in the AVANT Group fleet.

The Catalan Tourism Agency is carrying out an exhaustive monitoring of all the information related to CoVid-19 and that affects the Catalan tourism sector.

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Catalonia works to improve innovation and competitiveness of tourism companies

Faced with this conjunctural situation and waiting to return to normality, the Catalonian Tourist Board of the Catalan government is working to consolidate Catalonia as a leader in world tourist destinations. One of the objectives was to make the Catalan tourism model more sustainable and competitive.
The tourism promotion agencies in Catalonia work together to carry out a series of initiatives and actions aimed at diversification, seasonality, deconcentration and increased spending. Catalonia also pays special attention to improving innovation and technological competitiveness of tourism companies.
To position Catalonia as one of the best destinations from now on, around 1,200 actions have been planned to support the tourism sector. On the one hand, they are aimed at recovering from the current situation motivated by the global pandemic situation and, on the other, at projecting themselves around the world based on initiatives aimed at generating knowledge and the comprehensive training of companies and entities in the Catalan tourism sector. It seeks to contribute to the competitiveness of companies, organizations and entities that can improve and enhance knowledge of the demand and potential of each of the markets that generate tourist demand in the destination.

During this year 2020, declared “Year of Sports Tourism”, all the routes and unique points with a special tourist attraction that will be identified will also be defined to allow their cataloguing and subsequent promotion. All these actions will also have the support of communication campaigns (on and off-line).

Tourism should no longer be treated exclusively as a product that is only linked to an economic sector and that only its variables such as contribution to GDP or spending per visitor are measured. One of the objectives is to go further and guarantee the sustainability of the destination, incorporating all the environmental issues and aspects that involve the entire value chain. In this way, it will be possible to build new sustainable future scenarios to guarantee a generation of wealth derived from tourist activities and that does not put society or the territory at risk.

Tourism is a generator of opportunities for both social, economic and cultural agents and that is why its activities must be integrated as potential assets of the territory. The current moment is key to defining a destination that can ensure long-term survival.