The president and Minister of Tourism of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, María Dolores Corujo, participated in the Round Table on Tourist Sustainability Plans of the International Tourism Fair of Madrid 2022 (Fitur), highlighting that the Island is a Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO Global Geopark. In this sense, she celebrated that the Plan 'Lanzarote, the energy of the earth' has been chosen among the 42 proposed by the Canary Islands, together with Somiedo (Asturias), Geoparque de Granada (Andalusia), Liebana (Cantabria) and Benidorm (C. Valenciana).
This Plan has a total budget of 4.95 million euros that will be executed by the Island Council within a period of three years.
“We understand sustainability as the commitment to live with dignity without jeopardizing the legacy of future generations,” said the president, so the Plan contemplates improving and strengthening the offer “so that Lanzarote is a safe, connected, intelligent and sustainable tourist destination.” These actions are added to “renew and update our own collective awareness of the culture of limits.”
The president points out that this Plan “will serve as a tool to realign the public sector, private initiative and the population as a whole in a virtuous manner with the same purpose.”
María Dolores Corujo has taken a trip to Lanzarote's past, where there was a commitment to the progress and modernization of the Island, “focusing on the landscape and the relationship between art and nature”, possible thanks to people like “the unclassifiable César Manrique” and “the visionary politician José Ramírez Cerdá.”
She also wanted to highlight the creation of the Public Network of Art, Culture and Tourism Centers, “which integrates spaces as well known as the Mountains of Fire or the Jameos del Agua.”
“The internationalization of Lanzarote guaranteed the population a quality of life never before known,” the president declared.
In addition, she pointed out that “more than 30 years ago we specified our awareness of natural limits in a territorial and urban model, trying to channel development through sustainable channels when in 1991 we approved the Island Territorial Planning Plan.”
Six lines of action
'Lanzarote, the energy of the earth' contains six lines of action based on a Quality Commitment Seal, the improvement of urban spaces in the seven municipalities and consultancies for innovation, and taking measures to improve the quality of the complementary offer.
The president pointed out that the remaining axes consist of a business training and revitalization plan, the implementation of an integrated territorial information system and a system to control quality levels.
“We are aware that the challenge posed by global warming and climate change leads us to address the diversification of our economy, the deepening of energy sovereignty with renewable sources or access to more qualified segments of demand,” the president declared.
For María Dolores Corujo, “distance should not be an obstacle to deepening our tourism development model, improving it and establishing limits so that, fleeing from overcrowding, it contributes with greater spending in the destination and acts as a lever for other economic activities.”
