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LIFE IN SPAIN

TRAVEL: Which regions in Spain are paying residents to go on staycations?

Twelve autonomous communities in Spain are offering their residents - and in some cases people from other parts of Spain-  holiday vouchers worth hundreds of euros as an incentive for them to spend their summer holidays in their part of the country. 

TRAVEL: Which regions in Spain are paying residents to go on staycations?
Photo: CRISTINA QUICLER / AFP

Andalusia

The Andalusian tourist voucher offers a 25 percent discount on accommodation and breakfast in the region and up to 50 percent for some specific cases. People over 65 or under 25 can enjoy a €500 discount for hotel stays of four nights.

It’s available for people who are registered (empadronados) at town halls in the southern region and can be used up to three times before December 2021.

Find out more here.

Aragón

Residents from all over Spain can enjoy a discount of 40 percent on their holidays in Aragón, up to €300 per person. 

Find out more here.

The Balearic Islands

Balearic residents can get up to €100 per person for stays on any of the islands that make up Spain’s Mediterranean archipelago. 

Find out more here.

The turquoise waters of Menorca. Photo: Ricardo Frantz/Unsplash

Castilla-La Mancha

Castilla-La Mancha has launched pretty measly holiday subsidies by comparison with other regions: up to €12 for hostels, up to €20 for two and three-star hotels and up to €30 for the top hotels. 

Find out more here.

Castilla-León

Castilla-León offers €250, €500 or €700 holiday bonuses through its prepaid card “Disfruta” and “Disfruta Plus Agencias” for all visitors, meaning that this offer may also be available to international holidaymakers.

Find out more here.

Extremadura 

Extremadura has tourist vouchers that give discounts of between 50 and 75 percent on accommodation and activities for holidaymakers from all over Spain. The discounts are different in each of the western region’s two provinces.

Find out more here.

Galicia 

The green northwestern region has a tourist card available at bank branches which gives Galician residents (padrón in Galicia) €500 if they give €200, €375 if they pay in €150 and €250 if they top up €100.

Find out more here.

The Galician city of A Coruña. Photo: Eduardo Fernández/Unsplash

Canary Islands 

The Canary government is looking to roll out a prepaid card in June or July which will give 50,000 residents of the archipelago vouchers of €200 to spend their summer holidays on one of the Atlantic islands. It is expected that a similar incentive will be given to national tourists from the mainland but it’s yet to be confirmed.

Madrid

Madrid offers accommodation and tourism discounts of up to 50 percent (up to €600) to all national visitors who spend their holidays in the capital.

Find out more here.

The Basque Country

The Basque Country launched the Euskadi Turismo voucher, which offers discounts of 25 to 30 percent on selected tourism expenses.

Find out more here.

Valencia region

The Valencian government pays for 70 percent of tourism costs for registered residents (padrón in Alicante, Valencia or Castellón provinces) if they have a staycation in the region.

It covers accommodation costs and other hotel services but not alcohol or pay-per-view TV.

The next available holiday bonus period in the eastern region runs from September 15th to December 31st 2021, and budding holidaymakers have to register between September 15th and November 1st to gain access to this offer.

Find out more here.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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