Turisme Comunitat Valenciana registers more than 16,000 BONO VIAJE reservations during first half of the year

Tuesday 13th July 2021 – PRESS RELEASE with Mike Smith

A total of 16,269 reservations have been registered through the Bono Viaje during the first half of 2021, corresponding to the second phase of the Viatgem CV programme which joines the 9.156 reservations made during the last quarter of 2020.

These details were announced by the regional tourism secretary, Francesc Colomer, during a Bono Viaje Monitoring Committee which was held this Monday and where the latest figures were presented.

Colomer pointed out that more than 16,000 reservations were made through the Bono Viaje scheme which has benefited more than 32,000 people living in the Comunidad Valenciana, since the minimum travel group required by the voucher is two people.

In addition, the average stay of these reservations exceeded three nights in all types of accommodation, the most popular being campsites which has an average of twelve nights, and tourist homes, which has an average of more than six nights. For hotels, the average stay is close to five nights.

More than 47% of stays beyond the weekend, representing a significant revitalization of the tourism sector. The most popular type of accomodation is the hotel, with 77.5% of the total reservations, followed by rural accomodation (9.5%) and campsites (8%).

The most popular destinations for users of the Bono Viaje scheme are in the province of Alicante (Benidorm, Finestrat, Altea, Calp, Benimantell, Jávea and Alicante); followed by the province of Castellón (Peñíscola and Morella), and from the province of Valencia, the city of València itself.

Colomer explained “although a large part of the subsidized tourist spending is concentrated on tourist accommodation, the participating travel agencies are also offering other services that help keep the experiential offer open beyond the tourist seasons, thus contributing to the seasonal adjustment of the sector“.

In total, 25,425 reservations have been made through the Viatgem CV programme in the two periods that it has been in effect since it was launched last October.

Colomer explained that “we have 1,462 member companies” and that “the payment of these grants has been greatly expedited since January 2021, and currently they are being paid in an average payment term of less than 7 days since justification is presented“.

He also stressed that “it is a pioneering initiative that has allowed us to contribute to the revitalization of the sector at such a difficult time, in addition to verifying that citizens have not lost the desire to travel or trust in all health security measures applied by the sector“.

He announced that the next phase of the Viatgem CV programme, which begins on September 15th, which feature some changes and improvements to speed up the current process. He has also proposed to continue the tourist voucher scheme in 2022 if the sector considers it to be necessary to continue stimulating demand.

He explained that the programme is scheduled to restart at the beginning of September with the distribution of 5,000 new vouchers which will allow the beneficiaries to process their reservations for the last quarter of 2021.

The Bono Viaje provides a 70% discount to travel throughout the Comunidad Valenciana with the aim of stimulating domestic tourism demands during the off-season months and to support a sector devastated by the socio-economic effects caused by COVID-19.

The second period of the Viatgem CV programme has been in operation during the first half of 2021 – from January1st to June 15th – through the bonoviajecv.gva.es platform.

Each voucher issued by Turisme CV supposes a credit reserve of 600 euros. In the event that the reservation is not confirmed within 7 days or the maximum amount is not used when apply the 70% discount, the balance is returned to the pool and more vouchers are awarded on a first-come, first-served to those on the waiting list.

A total of 17 million euros has been invested into the Viatgem CV; 5 million euros for the 2020 period and 12 million euros for the two periods in 2021 (January 1st – June 15th then September 15th – December 31st).