The Lanzarote Business Confederation (CEL) has asked the Island Council and the Government of the Canary Islands to speed up the procedures for the execution of pending works on the Island, "in order to generate employment and contribute to the reactivation of construction", which it maintains is "one of the sectors most affected by the economic crisis caused by COVID-19".
In this sense, the president of the CEL, Francisco Martínez, points out that last year construction accounted for 4.5% fewer companies compared to 2019 and considers that the current moment of tourist stoppage “is ideal for public administrations to undertake the planned works, without causing inconvenience to visitors”.
This is one of the measures that the president conveyed to the president of the Lanzarote Island Council, María Dolores Corujo, in a working meeting held recently and in which they also asked to reduce the tax pressure on SMEs and the self-employed.
“The vast majority of self-employed workers and SMEs have seen their income reduced during the last year due to the pandemic and the current tax pressure only increases their agony”, says the president of the CEL.
Franciso Martínez emphasizes the damage that the pandemic has done to the island's business fabric and recalls that in 2020 459 companies disappeared, and 9% fewer businesses were launched than in 2019. “The sector that suffered the most was the hotel industry, which lost 10% of its companies after a year with hardly any tourist activity, so we consider the support of public administrations essential”, Martínez stresses.
The president of the Confederation also insists on the need for the Government of the Canary Islands to demand from the Government of Spain an increase in direct aid aimed at the business sector of the islands, which has suffered the economic consequences of the pandemic more virulently as a result of its greater dependence on tourism.
Lanzarote, a safe tourist destination
For Francisco Martínez, it is also a priority to carry out stricter control of health security measures and establish a vaccination plan in order to lower the COVID-19 alert level as soon as possible and restore tourists' confidence in Lanzarote as a safe destination.
“Recovering the confidence of Lanzarote's and the Canary Islands' main issuing markets is essential to successfully face the next tourist seasons and the most effective way to do so is by guaranteeing that health security measures are complied with. Without this, any of the aid provided by public institutions will be insufficient”, the president concludes.
