Iberia airlines president praises the Dominican Republic’s efficiency in managing COVID-19
The president of the Spanish airline Iberia, Javier Sánchez-Prieto, has set the Dominican Republic as an example of a country that has efficiently managed the COVID-19 pandemic, which has allowed the airline today to have a level of activity greater than in 2019.
Sánchez-Prieto declared at the IV CEAPI Ibero-American Congress for leaders of companies and business families, where he praised the Caribbean country for having managed to “stay open, with very low levels of incidence and without any complex support to the industry ” of tourism.
The manager, who has participated in a round table on tourism and sustainability, has stated that “although aid must be maintained until the situation stabilizes, the best way to help companies today is to lift the restrictions” that exist for travel because in his opinion there is a latent demand.
Also, the vice president and CEO of the Iberostar Group, Sabina Fluxá, highlighted that the Dominican Republic has been a “pioneer” country in vaccinating all employees in this industry.
After a dramatic year for the group, with more than 100 hotels on three continents, the CEO has demanded that she continue to “support the company as much as possible with economic, fiscal and labor measures in a framework that is as flexible as possible.”
She has also considered it necessary to establish international protocols for mobility and health security that are durable and teach how to travel safely for the future and that air connectivity is favored.
On behalf of the Piñero Group, with tourist and residential complexes in Spain and the Caribbean among other lines of business, its vice president and CEO, Encarna Piñero, has recounted the “suffering” experienced in the last year and a half, since they had to close 15,000 rooms in fifteen days and reduce operations with 15,000 families depending on them to practically zero.
Ella Piñero explained that they decided to give this situation a “co-governance approach with the different governments” and she expressly thanked the “support” and “collaboration” of the Dominican Minister of Tourism, David Collado, among others.
The businesswoman has opined that the sustainable transformation of the sector is the key to economic recovery; She has considered it essential to work on projects that make beach destinations sustainable and she has shown that 95% of mobility in her hotels is electric.
Along the same lines, the CEO of Iberostar has defended that sustainability is the only way to boost tourism from now on and that it represents, in her opinion, one of the three levers that exist to face recovery, along with safety and quality.
For his part, the president of Iberia has argued that the aviation sector is the “great unknown” in terms of CO2 emissions since these account for 2% of the emissions that occur worldwide and stressed that the industry has reduced 50% in recent years and has committed to reducing them to zero by 2050.
He has also opined that, since there is no substitute for trips of more than 1,500 kilometers, “when we talk about imposing taxes, we are not promoting the appropriate behaviors, but trying to tax the air we breathe.”
As he recalled, in those long-haul flights, which account for 80%, the industry is trying to develop some type of hydrogen engine that will be available in recent years.