Travel: make Valencia special case for holidays. Tourist chief says Covid figures excellent

THE region of Valencia – especially the much-loved Costa Blanca – should be able to welcome British holidaymakers when they are allowed to travel after May 17.

Valencia has the lowest incidence of Covid-19 of all of Spain and the statistics reveal coronavirus rates are much lower than the Balearic or Canary Islands.

Regional tourist minister Francesc Colomer has asked the British government to receive the same treatment as the islands – also favourite tourist destinations.

He said it was hoped when UK leaders prepared the traffic light travel scheme, it considered not only Spain’s national rates but also individual regions, as it plans to do with the islands.

Colomer said Valencia’s covid record should not be penalised by the less-
encouraging figures from other parts of Spain.

And the Costa Blanca hotel owners’ association Hosbec, which keeps all tour
companies up to date with the latest Covid figures, is also asking the UK not to apply national statistics to the region. It argues a different system is already in place when assessing the Spanish islands.