Doing their own thing

ANXIOUS to survive the winter season, Costa Blanca hoteliers and travel agencies are offering winter holidays for the elderly.
They are taking matters into their own hands, rather than wait while the central government awards the concessions to organise the subsidised Imserso pensioners’ holidays.
With all potential Imserso clients now vaccinated against the coronavirus, the holidays are due to go ahead although hotel sector sources claim that the first clients cannot arrive before November.
Meanwhile the Servigroup hotel chain has launched eight-day, €260 full board packages in four-star hotels that include transport to and from Alicante airport or the city’s AVE railway station.
Mundosenior, currently competing for the concession to organise Imserso holidays, is advertising stays of eight, 10 and 15 days, with transport and full-board included from €260 per person.
The Viajes El Corte Ingles has also joined the race to attract the pensioners and is selling Benidorm holidays from €220 per person per week.
These offers are open to the over-60s, unlike Imserso, which requires clients to be over 65, Spain’s retirement age, or at least in receipt of a pension.
“This is good news,” declared Nuria Montes, secretary general of the Hosbec hoteliers’ association. “But it is a temporary solution and the important thing is to allocate the official programme without delay.”