EU islands approve Canary Islands' new vision on sustainable tourism

The Islands Commission of the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR) of the EU has approved this Thursday by unanimity and without amendments the declaration for 'A new vision of sustainable tourism in the islands' promoted by the Government of the Canary Islands.

This text will now be submitted to the Commission and the European Parliament with the aim that its proposals be included as a priority in the roadmap of the new legislature, reports the Government of the Canary Islands.

The declaration was defended in the plenary session of the Islands Commission by President Fernando Clavijo, who in his speech stressed the need to implement measures to tackle two challenges shared by most European island territories: the demographic due to the sharp increase in population and the challenge of "democratizing" tourism so that its benefits reach the entire population.

To address them, Clavijo has reported on the process opened in the Canary Islands, following the celebration of the first Conference of Presidents in April, in search of a sustainable development model.

The head of the Executive recalled that five working groups with the presence of all the institutions of the archipelago have been debating for months what measures to implement to improve the quality of life of "the entire society", a consensus process that will yield results in the coming weeks.

The note indicates that the president defended the tourism sector as the engine of the Canary Islands economy, generating employment and wealth, and advocated for correcting the collateral effects that tourism pressure is generating in the island territories.

Among them, he highlighted the problems of access to housing, the saturation of services, the overpopulation of some islands and areas, and the effects on the natural spaces of the archipelago.

The Government recalls that the declaration for 'A vision of sustainable tourism in the islands' approved this Thursday at the summit of the Conference of Regions held in Malta calls on the States and the European Commission to include among their priorities the commitment to sustainable tourism in the European islands.

Specifically, the document asks the EU to launch as a priority of its new legislature "a suitable sustainable tourism development plan" that includes "the necessary funds to achieve these objectives".

The European islands integrated in the CPMR demand "a global plan" to advance towards sustainable tourism, "with an integrated approach through a European Pact for the Islands, which addresses the multiple issues that affect us from an island perspective", including issues such as land management, resource management, housing problems, transport policies, environmental protection and energy production".