The Canary Islands has been the only Spanish destination with representation at the nineteenth meeting of the Committee on Tourism and Sustainability (CTD) of the United Nations, which is being held these days in Costa Rica with the aim of addressing in depth key issues for the global tourism industry and its future development.
The World Tourism Organization invited the Canary Islands to attend the meeting to present its experience and participate in the debate on the challenges of the sector worldwide, in terms of sustainability and development.
The Minister of Tourism and Employment of the Government of the Canary Islands, Jéssica de León, and the managing director of Tourism of the Canary Islands, José Juan Lorenzo, were part of the committee table as guests and also participated as speakers in the panel "The future of tourism and the desired development", where they explained the roadmap that the destination is already implementing to move towards a more sustainable model.
Jéssica de León pointed out that in order to achieve the desired development of tourism, "the key is to reinforce the concept of land use." To this end, she pointed out, it is necessary to "promote legislative changes that promote a real transformation of the destination".
In this sense, she recalled that the Government of the Canary Islands is already working on the law that will regulate holiday homes in the islands; and in the coming months will begin the processing of a new Tourism Planning Law, since the current one has been in force for almost thirty years.
The councillor stressed that the main challenge for the Canary Islands as a destination is to understand sustainability from a social point of view, which implies real benefits for the local population. In addition, she stressed the importance of environmental sustainability. "We must think about the benefit to the resident and the choice of a tourist who respects our territory," she said.
In the same vein, José Juan Lorenzo assured that "environmental sustainability is one of the priorities of Tourism of the Canary Islands". He recalled that the archipelago has been adhering to the Glasgow Declaration since 2022, and that it was the first destination in Spain to have a Climate Action Plan to reduce CO2 emissions.
He stressed that more and more public and private entities are using the free tool offered by Turismo de Islas Canarias to measure the carbon footprint, which demonstrates the destination's commitment to zero emissions.
"The aim is that in 2026 all tourism products will report their carbon footprint. The destination is absolutely committed to the search and capture of a responsible tourist and the campaigns initiated in this regard are an example of the tourism we are attracting," he said.