The Government of the Canary Islands will require cruise shipping companies to carry out PCR tests or serological tests on all travelers before reaching the archipelago
This was revealed during a meeting between the councilors of Public Works, Transport and Housing of the Government of the Canary Islands, Sebastián Franquis, and of Health, Blas Trujillo, with the presidents of the two port authorities of the islands.
The meeting served to address the health protocol that has been established by the Government of the Canary Islands to authorize cruise trips between the islands with all health guarantees.
For their part, several shipping companies specialized in this type of tourism have been interested in cruising exclusively on the Canary Island circuit during the winter season, which is expected to start at the end of October or beginning of November.
The presidents of the port authorities of Las Palmas, Luis Ibarra, and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Carlos González, promised to convey this protocol of the Canary Islands government to interested shipping companies so that they can put it into practice on their cruises.
Once these companies confirm to the Canarian ports that they assume these sanitary requirements, the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Housing will ask the central government to authorize this type of economic activity in the islands, so the Canary Islands would be the first autonomous community in Spain in having a tourist offer of cruises after the cessation of this activity decreed in March due to the health crisis of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Franquis said that “There are not many markets in the winter cruise season in Europe and it is essential for the government to recover winter tourism, not only in air transport, but also in maritime transport and gradually recover the hotel plant.”
“Therefore,” he continued, “we are making every effort to ensure that between October and November cruise tourism begins to recover normally within what we are experiencing and not lose the winter tourist season.”
Among the measures included in the health protocol of the Government of the Canary Islands is the requirement that cruise companies subscribe an insurance that covers all the expenses of cruise passengers that may be infected by COVID-19 in order to guarantee both safety of the residents of the Islands and the occupants of these boats.
This insurance would cover all the expenses derived from a coronavirus incidence among travelers, such as repatriation, medical expenses and quarantine stays.
Another of the control measures set by the Government of the Canary Islands is to require shipping companies to do all travelers before arriving in the Canary Islands, a diagnostic test (PCR or serological test) that show that they are negative for coronavirus.
In addition, cruise passengers must fill out a form that includes all their movements in the last 15 days before arriving in the Canary Islands to monitor them in case of an incident, and confirm if they have had any contact with people who are positive for coronavirus or if they themselves have tested positive in a recent diagnostic test.
For their part, the cruise companies undertake that their ships do not exceed 60 or 70% of their capacity, that they expand their health staff on board, clean and disinfect the ships after each trip, to establish a protocol of Follow-up of the ships every time they dock in a port of the Islands.
The Canary Islands government has also informed the port authorities that this tourist activity will only be allowed to European companies, since the health protocols established by the EU are among the most demanding in the world. In this sense, some five European cruise tourism companies have already been interested in the Canarian winter circuit.
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