Toni Pérez: "Benidorm has used preventive medicine"

Convened by the Hotel and Tourism Business Association of the Valencian Community, HOSBEC, at noon the commemorative event of the decision to close the hotel plant and the start of the actions that took place from the declaration of the state of alarm in March 2020.

In the event, which was led by the general secretary of HOSBEC, Nuria Montes, representatives of business and professional associations integrated under their acronym. Toni Mayor, president of HOSBEC, have participated, who opened the turn of interventions, positioning the commemoration and vindicating the management carried out, while requesting state tourist vouchers, the update of the elderly vacation program, a rescue plan that proportionally distributes aid according to the damage suffered and the consideration of tourism as a product of first necessity.

In the institutional part, which closed the event, the regional secretary of Tourism, Francesc Colomer, the president of the Alicante Provincial Council, Carlos Mazón and the mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, took part. Colomer made a plea in favor of the sector and stressed that all the administrations and companies in the sector join forces in the same direction. Mazón was vindictive: he demanded a national mobility project and warned of the sector's loss of patience with much-needed aid.

The mayor of Benidorm "applauded and thanked" the event because it shows a management throughout a year based on the strength of the sector and the resilience of the companies that comprise it. Toni Pérez stressed that "tourism is the vaccine and the best preventive medicine."

He recalled the meeting on Sunday March 15, 2020 where the decision was made to close the local hotel plant in 72 hours - "one of the most difficult decisions that can be made", which, in turn, he described as brave ", considering it as “an excellent decision that I will always applaud” - and to make it possible for tourists to return to their places of origin. Pérez highlighted the value of entrepreneurs "to put health before their assets" and the work carried out since then.

He pointed out that the City Council had already “closed the beaches on the 14th”, after having closed them to the bathroom the day before. And in this line, he emphasized the "analysis and intelligence of data" that would be key "to modulate many of the actions that would come later."