The call for elections on July 23 has caused concern both among tourist companies and among customers, confirmed travel agencies, airlines and hotels consulted. Not so much because it should affect demand in a significant way, but because of the dance of date changes and refunds of the amount of reservations and plane tickets that will occur among the people who are part of the electoral months.
“Convening the elections in the third week of July does not exactly favor the issuing tourist group, taking into account the good data we have so far on sales expected for the season”, points out Juan Molas, president of the Tourism Board.
The manager of the association of travel agencies Acave, Catiana Tur, rules out a notable impact on demand because there is a large amount of travel reservations already contracted. However, the last-minute ones, which are usually concentrated in June, could slow down while waiting for the citizens to clarify whether they should go to mass.
Since Pedro Sánchez announced the electoral advance, Acave has received a large number of inquiries from associated companies to find out how to act. Calls from concerned customers are constant. Tur clarifies that in the event that a person cancels a trip to be appointed table member, the conditions with which he contracted the service will apply. Instruction 6/2011, of April 28 of the Central Electoral Board, gives a list of cases that are causes of impediment to take part in the electoral months, and travel is not one of them. Nevertheless, Tur emphasizes that, according to the experience with other local elections, “when a person has proven that he has a contracted trip before the date of the elections, he is exempted”. “There is no absolute certainty that he will get rid of it – he clarifies – but he can try.” They do, however, recommend taking out cancellation insurance for the holidays.
Among the airlines, Vueling has not registered any anomalies with the reservations in the case of the municipal flights on May 28. The generals, however, coincide with the high summer season, therefore, there could be cases of affected passengers, they add. Travelers who have contracted a flight change in the reservation may change the date of the trip. Otherwise, they have the option of using what they consider “justifiable reasons” to request reimbursement. In Iberia, they explain that they will facilitate the exchange or refund of the ticket, just like Level, which will also give away another flight.
