Granada Provincial Council and the Granada City Council will coordinate actions to recover tourism after the pandemic.

At the press conference to present the general protocol for joint action, Medina and Olivares stressed that tourism is one of the most important sectors for GDP and employment in Granada and that, together with culture, it has been one of the worst hit and will be one of the last to restore its activity. "We are very clear about its economic and social importance and we are going to do everything we can to help it within our competences", said Medina. .

Olivares explained that both the City Council and the Diputación de Granada "understand that their collaboration is essential to increase the effectiveness of tourism promotion policies in the province of Granada and enhance the full diversity of its offer". "We have been back to back for a long time and it is time to make the most of our resources and start working together", emphasised the councillor. For this reason, the signed framework agreement, which will be valid for an initial period of four years, emphasises the need to expand and coordinate promotional strategies to achieve the common goal of recovering tourism demand and supporting the sector.

The aim of the agreement is to regulate collaboration, strengthen relations between the two institutions, join forces and establish criteria for cooperation. Medina detailed that "among other actions, it provides for a programme of fighting against seasonality linked to products, advertising and communication campaigns in the national and international market, creation of offers in collaboration with tour operators, technical support for the development of product clubs, and technical conferences for professionals on marketing and markets." Olivares, for his part, listed "measures aimed at attracting congresses and cultural and sporting events, familiarisation trips for journalists and travel agents, constructing a smart destination, editing tourism brochures and optimising databases."

All these actions will be developed by consensus, but each administration will carry them out with its own human and budgetary resources, within its respective possibilities. A joint monitoring committee will be set up to define projects, supervise the evolution of the agreement and measure its effectiveness.

Medina has expressed the commitment of the Provincial Council and its Provincial Tourism Board to redouble the necessary efforts to contribute to the recovery of the sector: "If we have to provide more resources we will do so", but bearing in mind that they are limited and "public money will have to be injected with operating theatre precision to optimise results and be sure that it will bear positive fruit."

Both the Provincial Council and the City Council are clear that the horizon for recovery is 2022,with the possibility of an upturn in the sector in the last quarter of the current financial year, once the vaccination process has been consolidated both in destination Spain and in the main source markets.

"Our aim is not only to return to the number of visitors that the province of Granada had before the crisis caused by the epidemic. The aim is to return to the path of growth and expansion of the sector that we have had in the last decade and which has led us to almost double the number of tourists," said Medina, who is aware "that there is difficult and hard work ahead to achieve this".

"Competition between national and international destinations is going to be enormous and we must be prepared. The action protocol we have signed will allow us to coordinate our actions and be stronger," stressed Olivares.

Both Medina and Olivares have clarified that the coronavirus has not at any time paralysed the promotional activity of Granada and its province carried out by both the City Council and the Provincial Council. Their respective action plans have been reformulated to adapt them to the situation, focusing the strategy on branding and national and international positioning of the Granada brand so that potential tourists will have it in mind as a holiday destination when the longed-for normality is restored.