The Lanzarote Tourism Federation (FTL) plus the Fuerteventura Association of Tourist Entrepreneurs (Asofuer); the Hotel and Extra-hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro (Ashotel), and the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs of Las Palmas (FEHT) regret that the Government of the Canary Islands has to "return almost 7 million euros" to the State allocated in the previous legislature for the "rehabilitation" of tourist infrastructures for "not having executed them on time."
Tourist infrastructures are not only at the "service of those who visit us," but also of "the residents of the Islands, who have the same right to enjoy them, since they are paid for with public budgets financed with taxes," the associations report.
“We are concerned about this type of information, because from the private sector, tourist entrepreneurs are making an enormous effort to maintain our facilities at an optimal level, a circumstance that positively influences the improvement of the destination,” and then our representatives and administrations do not "fulfill their duty to execute the amounts allocated to rehabilitate the public tourist space due to a delay in management," the employers point out.
In that sense, they urge the new regional government, and especially the new team at the head of the Ministry of Tourism, to make "the greatest effort to improve management," while considering that it is necessary to "increase the autonomous budget for 2024 in terms of public infrastructures." "What is the point of having the best hotels if the tourist then goes out into the street and the spaces they travel through and their facilities are not at the same level?" they ask.
"What is the point of having the best hotels if the tourist then goes out into the street and the spaces they travel through are not at the same level?"
In previous occasions, the tourist employers of the Archipelago made it clear that the "budget allocated in successive legislatures" to the area of Tourism and, especially, to public infrastructures is "minimal compared to what the sector generates."
Thus, in the 2023 budgets, a total of "125 million euros" were allocated to the area of Tourism, of which "23 were allocated to the Tourist Infrastructure Plan." These amounts, despite the fact that they "have grown in recent years," are still manifestly "insufficient" compared to the approximately "2,700 million" that the autonomous public coffers receive each year, from the taxes paid by tourist activity, the main engine of the Canary economy.
