The mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, held a new meeting this Monday in Las Palmas with the managing director of Puertos Canarios, José Gilberto Moreno, who confirmed to the municipal president not only the forecast of the arrival of the first boutique cruise ship for next November, but more docking requests for the year 2026. “These will be luxury ships with between 200 and 400 visitors with high purchasing power who want to live experiences at the destination and even stay one or two nights”, informs Óscar Noda after the meeting convened at the request of the southern City Council.
Now everything depends, according to what the director of Puertos Canarios told the municipal representation, “on the final authorization of the Port Authority of Las Palmas, but from what the director assured me, there will be no problem. I publicly thank Gilberto Moreno for his attention and collaboration in order to achieve this objective for which Yaiza, the population of the municipality and the business sector have bet and fought”.
The mayor also highlights that the market segmentation of boutique cruises “are tourists who are especially sensitive to caring for the environment and the port of Playa Blanca is the most sustainable facility in the Canary Islands and our destination is a Biosphere Reserve”.
Regarding the port's services, the mayor requested a fixed taxi rank inside the premises and the execution of works that improve accessibility between the pebble beach located next to the port and the Playa Blanca promenade. “Another of the issues that we had requested is the reinforcement of security, and there are already two more guards, as well as optimizing the signage that is deficient, an action that is still pending, but will be carried out”.
And in line with the sustainability of the dock, Puertos Canarios prioritizes the access of road traffic of public service vehicles, taxis and buses, and then private individuals with electric and hybrid vehicles. The port will also submit the Blue Flag application for 2026, in such a way that the environmental actions must be carried out before the inspection next October.
Regarding the cafeteria, the idea is to put it into service through an abbreviated contracting procedure that allows it to function as soon as possible. On the other hand, Puertos Canarios confirmed to Yaiza that the demolition of the old terminal will be partial to leave more public bathrooms in service. “It has taken its toll to get to this point, we have presented countless initiatives, but we are excited about the arrival of high-spending tourism in exchange for reducing mass tourism that exerts much greater pressure on the territory and public services”, concludes the mayor.
