The Minister of Territorial Policy and former president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres (PSOE), believes that there is "a clamor" among the citizens of the islands in favor of implementing a tax or fee that taxes tourist overnight stays, after the levels reached by the sector.
Torres made these statements when asked in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria about the protest that one of the groups that organized the demonstrations against mass tourism in the Canary Islands called in Tenerife this Sunday.
The former president of the Canary Islands has stressed that it is from 2023 when the tourism sector of the islands has recovered the levels of visitors and turnover it had before the covid-19 pandemic and that, therefore, his party, the PSOE, does support creating a fee now.
"We believe that it is the moment and we have proposed it, because it is also a clamor from the citizens that there is a tax, a fee negotiated with the employers and union representatives, so that overnight stays generate an income to improve tourism infrastructure," he argued
Torres believes that it is also time to seek in the tourism of the Canary Islands a "economic rebalancing between the workers of the sector and the employers".
"However, the Popular Party and the Canarian Coalition, which are currently governing, voted against our initiative. I think it was a mistake," said the minister, who believes that the demands of citizens protesting against the repercussions of mass tourism are "logical and absolutely legitimate."
Last year, the Canary Islands received 15.2 million foreign tourists (9% more), who spent 22,886 million euros on their vacations (+12% more), a fifth of all tourism revenue in Spain, the highest figures in the history of the sector in the islands, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.
If we add the nationals to the foreigners, the balance of the year is 18 million tourists; that is, one and a half million per month for a community of 2.24 million inhabitants.
