In the assessment of the campaign Language rights are not on holiday, Agurne Gaubeka pointed out that the infringements show that there is still a long way to go and that although awareness campaigns are essential, other measures and aid are needed to guarantee rights.

Many gaps in leisure

In the summer campaign, the Observatory aims to collect the rights violations that occur in unusual spaces and, as last year, leisure and hospitality have also been analyzed. As for leisure, citizens have denounced that they have not been served in Basque in areas such as tourist offices, museums or guided tours. In general, the citizens have criticized that the information neither in the physical spaces nor in the network is in Basque. Guidelines have also been found in Euskera at an extra cost, as reported by the Basque Department of Interior. Gaubeka reflects on the treatment of Euskera as an indigenous language: “The vulnerations of various centers of interest are noteworthy: the Basque language, even if it is his own language, is not among the languages eligible for the visit, or worse, neither in the network nor physically is information provided in Euskera about this space”.

Citizens have denounced that many of the representations related to culture and sport have been made only in Spanish and in French. Gaubeka reflects on the Basque brand: “With regard to foreign tourism, the Basque brand is sold in different cultural spaces in our surroundings, but the violations we have collected show that the Basque country has a small space within these peculiarities of the local”.

Also in hospitality

Gaubeka has underlined the importance of the linguistic landscape being in Basque, so that the citizens can then decide to have it in Basque in an establishment. However, it acknowledges that in view of the number of complaints received, the situation remains disappointing. In the advertisements, websites and social networks used to make the hospitality establishments known use Spanish, French and English. On the other hand, in many establishments the letter is not in Basque and many servers are not able to understand Basque. In the last two years, due to the pandemic, domestic tourism has increased and it could be the case that those engaged in hospitality use more languages from the local tourist. Apparently, there has not been: “Although domestic tourism has grown significantly over the past two years, many services have targeted external clients following the impetus given to tourism, which means not respecting the linguistic rights of the local population as collateral damage.”