The Expat Business Associations of the Orihuela Costa have mobilised to support the Valencian Government in requesting that the Community be exempt from the obligatory quarantine introduced last Sunday by the British Government.
To do this, they have joined forces with the Orihuela Chamber of Commerce in, according to the Chamber Secretary Pedro Mancebo, an initiative, in which they are trying to contact the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliot, and the Community President, Ximo Puig, to explain their position.
Mancebo says that all of the proprietors “are upset” with the decision of the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as for them “it is an absolute necessity that they receive seasonal visitors, particularly during the summer holiday season” which is what their businesses are built around. “They are astounded and outraged,” he said.
Stating that he thought the preventive restrictions are perhaps correct “from the health point of view, they should also be compatible, from the economic point of view, in providing support for the many expat enterprises which, in the Orihuela Costa, strictly comply with all of the sanitary measures introduced by the Spanish Government”.
The secretary of the Chamber said that “visitors should be monitored, with tests carried out at source”, in order to provide a good system that would guarantee the prevention of infections, both in the United Kingdom and in Spain.
The main Expat associations in the sector, Orihuela Costa Avanza and the Cabo Roig Strip Association, have already issued a statement among their associates.
In the announcement they stressed that “the measures taken by the British Government are not based on health and safety concerns” but they have been introduced because they are politically and economically convenient” for the Johnson government.
“Although many may think that it is prudent to restrict the visit of British tourists to Spain due to the high incidence of infections in the United Kingdom and the inadequate measures applied by the British Government to ease the pandemic,” they continued in the statement, “We, as business owners, all adhere to strict regulations every day in which we have created a safe environment for everyone that either works in or uses our establishments.”
“We believe that the quarantine imposed on travellers entering the United Kingdom from Spain is wrong.”
For this reason, together with the Orihuela Chamber of Commerce, the two Expat associations have “urgently” requested that tourists from the UK be allowed to “visit the Valencian Community without being affected by quarantine regulations on their return.”
