Lanzarote is one of the places in the world with the most active tourism companies per inhabitant, with a total of 111 businesses currently operating, which employ hundreds of people on the island. The Canary Islands Government has just enacted a reform to professionalize the sector and its qualifications and, at the same time, promote the creation of thousands of additional jobs.
The business owners and self-employed in active tourism applaud the measure, but some ask for flexibility to ensure their guides know the languages of their clients.
In the words of the Director General, the Director General of Tourism Planning, Training and Promotion of the Canary Islands, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, who has spearheaded the reform of the 2017 Regulation for the professional licensing of the sector, stated, “The Canary Islands are in the global top 10” for active tourism, “we compete with New Zealand, Hawaii, and Costa Rica”.
Active tourism in the Canary Islands directly employs more than 4,000 people. With this reform, the Canary Islands Government expects many versatile profiles to be incorporated, and reach up to 10,000 jobs.
What does the reform consist of?
The new legal text provides that all active tourism workers must have 40 hours of training in first aid courses and 10 hours in safety and risk prevention.
The reform also contemplates that all workers in this sector need official degrees to carry out each activity, but it also contains a transitional provision that allows experience to be validated for those who are already working, except in activities of maximum difficulty such as diving, aerial, and nautical activities.
The legal change has also been accompanied by the creation of a Hecansa Active Tourism Center on Melenara Beach, in the Gran Canarian municipality of Telde.
The three levels of professional qualification
First grade includes aquatic activities in calm waters, guided walking tours on easy routes, shooting activities, cycling, or motor vehicles, among others. Monitors for this group will need to accredit either 1,000 hours of experience or the same number of training hours in the activity to be carried out.
An intermediate level includes, for example, activities in rough waters such as surfing, windsurfing, kayaking, dinghy sailing; also high mountain activities, caving, or canyoning. The requirements are the same as for the first level, but the number of hours of experience or training increases to 2,000 hours.
And the last, most demanding, which includes both scuba diving, as well as hang gliding, free flight, paragliding or parachuting, and more difficult water sports with sailboats, jet skis, speedboats or fishing.
Professionals in favor, although languages are a concern in Lanzarote
The archipelago's main business association in the sector, Ecoactiva Canarias, expressed its satisfaction with the reform because it "deepens the better identification of companies and professionals, qualifications, and environmental care, among other issues".
Marcelo Espino, owner of the Lanzarote-based company Canary Trekking, which organizes hiking and mountain activities in Lanzarote, also finds it acceptable, "in the sense of professionalizing the sector and ensuring everyone has their qualifications".
However, Espino advocates for being "a little flexible too because the problem we often have here is **languages**. You can have people with specific qualifications in a certain sport, but then they speak very little English."
When asked about this on Radio Lanzarote, the Director General of Tourism Training and Promotion of the Canary Islands believes that "tourism must adapt to new technologies and in particular to artificial intelligence".
"Fortunately, technology allows everyone on a tour to wear headphones, and the guide can speak in Spanish using artificial intelligence, so that the German person in the group can understand it in German," Rodríguez considers"The idea that a guide has to speak English, German, or French and cannot take Italians or Poles is coming to an end," he added.
Marcelo Espino is not so sure. "Artificial intelligence can be useful at certain times, but in active tourism there is a personal touch, in addition to qualifications and experience, the guide is also a bit of a psychologist, they have to know the language to have a connection with people".
In Lanzarote, the lack of island regulation is of greater concern
In any case, Espino believes that each island is different and thinks that the "main difficulty faced by many active tourism companies in Lanzarote, especially in hiking, is that the natural spaces are awaiting regulation, but in the meantime, the Cabildo's policy has been one of absolute prohibition and at the same time they are not creating anything, there isn't even an island-specific network of trails”.
"Some city councils have enabled a route individually at their own free will, and the Cabildo, which is the responsible management body for the island's spaces, has done absolutely nothing."
The owner of Canarias Trekking compares it to managing a museum. The responsible authorities are in charge of custody of the works of art in that venue, but their job is also to allow visitors to access them to see them”.
