The president of the Lanzarote Tourism Federation, Susana Pérez, believes that the social movement that will demonstrate on April 20 under the slogan 'Canarias has a limit' is "a call to order and to respond to the challenges we face."
In a recent interview with Radio Lanzarote, Pérez criticized the lack of measures by the Administration: "The population of Lanzarote has increased by 60% in recent years and we do not see the same increase in public services."
"There has been a lack of territorial planning for more than 30 years, urban absence in some municipalities, lack of mobility and public transport services, educational, training, etc."
"The hotel sector has complied"
Asked about one of the lines of protest of the April 20 movement to stop hotel licenses, the president of the Tourism Federation explains that in recent times, "only one establishment has opened in Playa Blanca and another in Puerto del Carmen."
Which has meant "2,000 beds at most, which contrasts very significantly with the increase in tourist beds in vacation rentals" in Lanzarote.
"The tourism sector has complied, a hotel has not been built where it could not be," says Pérez during the interview, although she later acknowledges that "there are some hotels with sentences" that have declared them illegal, "but we are not now going to extrapolate the cases that may be, to the totality."
"Vacation rental buildings will have to become hotels or tourist apartments"
Pérez focuses on the "exorbitant growth" of vacation rentals, which in Lanzarote "has meant 33,000 beds not foreseen in any planning or urban plan."
The president of the Lanzarote Tourism Federation considers that the preliminary draft presented by the Government of the Canary Islands for the future Tourist Rental Law "comes to order" the vacation rental business.
According to the Government of the Canary Islands, there are 55,000 vacation rentals registered in the Canary Islands and 22,000 people own only one. At the same time, there are companies that own up to 500 VRs.
Faced with the long list of requirements that the preliminary draft foresees for vacation rentals and that the Canary Islands Vacation Rental Association (ASCAV) considers mortally wounds the sector and in particular families who have only one VR, Pérez recalls that "there are transitional provisions to adapt".
However, Pérez focuses on the large holders of vacation rentals. In the tourism sector, "we want to continue being very competitive and offer quality. Therefore, we have to put ourselves on the same ground of regulation rules. Those buildings (of vacation rentals) will have to be converted, upon request to the city council, into hotels or tourist apartments."
Pérez responds to Clavijo: "the best democratization of wealth is to create employment"
Faced with the recent call from the president of the Canary Islands for tourism sector entrepreneurs to democratize wealth and raise the salaries of their workers, the president of the Federation says they are "statements that are out of place."
Pérez acknowledges that the turnover of hotels has increased in recent times thanks to the "inflationary effect and also, without a doubt, because more tourists have arrived," but considers that through agreements, the tourism sector has already "increased salaries above other activities, both sectoral and at the community level (autonomous)."
"The best democratization that tourism companies can contribute is the creation of employment," says Pérez, who highlights the contribution of the tourism industry to the leadership of the Canary Islands in Spain in terms of GDP and employment growth.
She also underlines the "improbable efforts that companies have to make" to assume the costs involved in the condition of outermost region of the archipelago and that "not all are covered through subsidies."
