The Minister of Tourism and Employment of the Canary Islands Government, Jéssica de León, defended a transversal tourism model this Wednesday in Lanzarote, which develops a 360º vision.
"It's not just tourism that we manage, understood as hotels, airports, and buses. We are also concerned about the tourist load or the pressure that these tourists exert on essential public services such as waste collection, healthcare, housing, or transportation," he assured.
"Currently, we have a holistic vision, although the tourism laws that regulate us as an autonomous community do not have that objective because the legislators of 1995 were focused on promoting a model that would consolidate the Canary Islands against the rest of the world. However, we have already moved past that stage," he stressed.
Jéssica de León made these statements at the Lanzarote University School of Tourism (EUTL), during her participation in the activity 'Tercer Grado', an initiative developed in collaboration with the Cabildo de Lanzarote. The meeting allowed fourth-year Tourism Degree students to gain first-hand knowledge of a global and critical analysis of the Canary Islands' tourism strategy.
De León thanked the Lanzarote University School of Tourism and the Lanzarote Island Council for developing this initiative, which is part of the commitments renewed last November after signing the **Global Charter** for Sustainable Tourism +30
"Being here allows us to maintain a dialogue with the people who will be dedicated to the tourism industry in the Canary Islands, the pillar of our economy, but also, we maintain this dialogue precisely at the moment when the debate on transforming the tourism model opens, a model that must look closely at Lanzarote, which has been a pioneer in working on the product in terms of quality," he indicated.
For the Minister of Education of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Ascensión Toledo, these types of activities "are the ideal complement to this training. They are **students** who are about to graduate, so they will soon become **professionals** in the sector. What better way to complement their training from a political point of view than with **direct explanation**. Direct training is always better because it impacts pedagogical content, which is always of great interest."For her part, the director of the Lanzarote University School of Tourism, Eva Crespo, emphasized the importance of "fostering dialogue between the university and tourism policymakers, because it allows for a constructive and serene dialogue that creates synergies around the reflection of a balanced tourism model".The councilor was accompanied by the Vice-Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Manuel Sanabria, and the Director General of Tourism Planning, Training and Tourism Promotion, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
To analyze and understand the tourism reality of the Canary Islands, the Minister of Tourism and Employment underwent a battery of questions that offered a 360º view, formulated in seven blocks: tourism model and strategic vision; housing and vacation rentals; saturation and infrastructure management; economy, employment, and diversification; environment and sustainability; social participation and governance; and renewal and future of the sector.
The activity is part of the curriculum for the subject Analysis and Tourist Planning of the Territory, taught at EUTL by Professor Pedro Hernández.
