Valencia extends second period of ‘Bono Viaje’ scheme to May 31

Tuesday 26th January 2021 | MIKE SMITH

The regional secretary for Tourism, Francesc Colomer, chaired a meeting of the Travel Voucher Monitoring Commission today Tuesday, in which the main regional associations of tourist accommodation and travel agencies participate, and in which it has been agreed to extend the current period of the use of the Travel Voucher until May 31.

This extension will thus allow to extend the period of the second phase, currently in force from January 1 to March 24, and in which 10,000 vouchers have already been distributed with about 6,400 confirmed reservations and which has a waiting list of more than 33,000 users. According to the head of Turisme, “this proposal that we have presented to the sector today has the objective of preventing those who are entitled to aid and have been granted or may be granted in this period, having less time to use than the the rest due to the recent perimeter closures approved this Sunday by the Generalitat Valenciana “.

He continued: “We understand that the current situation entails and that it is also advisable to reduce of movements within the Valencian Community itself, which complicates the enjoyment of this voucher scheme during the coming weeks“. For this reason, “we have proposed and agreed with the sector to extend the current period until the end of May,” he stated, while insisting that “tourist accommodation are safe spaces, where the approved health security protocols are strictly complied with“.

The head of Turisme has added that “from today work will be done to speed up the modification of this decree as much as possible“, and explained that “shortly, once the change has been authorized through the modification of the decree, it will be reported to users“. Specifically, it is Decree 156/2020 of October 16 that regulates the direct granting of grants from the Valencian Community Travel Bonus program to encourage internal tourism demand in this period of economic difficulty in the tourism sector.

On the other hand, Francesc Colomer has recalled that “since the perimeter closure situation was already contemplated in the text as exceptions to be taken into account, the users of the travel voucher already have the right to change dates if the destination or origin of the beneficiary it is perimeter, in this case, on weekends“.

Comunidad Valenciana Travel Voucher Scheme

The Travel Voucher scheme provides a discount of 70%, up to a maximum of 600 euros, to travel through the three provinces, with the aim of stimulating the demand for internal tourist services in periods of seasonality due to the negative socio-economic effects caused by COVID -19.

It has three phases: the first took place during the last quarter of 2020 with results of 9,842 bookings, about 30,000 travellers, 90,000 overnight stays and a tourist expenditure of 7 million euros.

The second phase is currently in effect from January 1 and will be extended until May 31; and, finally, the third application period for the Travel Voucher will be activated in October 2021 and will be in force until December 31, 2021.

The maximum amount of aid to be granted is 16.3 million euros, of which 4.3 million euros correspond to the last quarter of 2020, and the rest, up to 12 million euros, to the financial year 2021.