Alicante approves 6 million euros of aid to small businesses and self-employed in tourism sector

Monday 24th May 2021 – XÀBIA AL DÍA with Mike Smith

The last plenary session of the Alicante Provincial Council has unanimously approved a credit modification which will make it possible to allocate some 6 million euros to help the self-employed, SMEs and micro-SMEs in the tourism sector to overcome the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This line of aid, which will be funded using the remainder of the assets of the Costa Blanca Tourist Board and which forms part of Plan TEN, will be distributed to all town councils in the Alicante region for subsequent distribution to successful applicants. The amount that will be received by each municipality will be determined by population and its recognition as a tourist destination.

Carlos Mazón, president of the Provincial Council, who has been in Madrid to promote the Costa Blanca at the FITUR international tourism fair, stated during an online conference session that the aid is intended to give the highest level of decision-making to the municipality and that work is already in progress with the opposition groups to define the criteria of the terms and conditions of the application that must be established by the each municipality so that the aid can reach the sector as soon as possible. He added that all the initiatives in tourism be carried out by the provincial administration, including this plan, is being carried out in coordination with the Generalitat Valenciana.

The deputy president and representative for the Economy, Eduardo Dolón, stressed that the aid package will allow the region to reach the small municipality in the province to help the tourism sector, one of the most affected by the pandemic, to overcome this difficult situation.

The initiative has the support of the opposition, with the Socialist representative Maite García, pointing out that “it will help tourism companies in the province to alleviate the difficulties that they are going through”, whilst at the same time applauding the criteria applied for the distribution of the funding “because this will allow us to get it to both the smallest and the largest municipalities, taking into account the tourist status of each one”.

The approval of this loan aimed specifically at the tourism sector coincides with the presence of the Costa Blanca Tourism Board at FITUR when Mazón took advantage to explain the details of the Plan TEN, for which some 10 million euros has been put aside, the largest aid package to support tourism in the province in history, “in order to reactivate the sector that contributes the most employment and wealth to the economy and that has suffered the most from the effects of the crisis”.

The Alicante Provincial Council – known as the ‘Diputación de Alicante’ – has provided more than 50 million euros of direct aid to councils throughout the region in the last year to help alleviate the effects of COVID-19. More than 15.7 million euros have been provided to support social services whilst another 15 million euros went to support the self-employed, SMEs and micro SMEs. In addition, the Diputación has contributed more than 14.7 million euros to the Plan RESISTIR in support of the hospitality and leisure sectors, and now six million euros has been approved to help the tourism sector.