The tourist pressure in Lanzarote, the third most visited island of the Canary Archipelago, is reflected in all its areas. Regarding the announcement of the Lanzarote Council about the beginning of the process to declare the island as a touristically saturated zone, we analyze in detail the Study of the Tourist Carrying Capacity in Lanzarote on which the institution has relied to take this step. We also expose how this pressure has influenced the landscape.
Only three archipelagos, Canary Islands, Balearic Islands and Hawaii, "account for about 5% of international tourist arrivals." According to the data presented in the research, prepared by Gaia Consultores, the Canary Archipelago "doubles the influx of tourist arrivals from South Africa, one of the major destinations in Africa." But how does this tension affect the environment?
Tourist land, two thirds of the residential area
The dependence on the tourism sector on the island is reflected in how natural resources have been consumed to meet demand. Land consumption is perhaps one of the most visible elements. According to data released by this study, the territorial occupation of tourism in Lanzarote is equivalent to two thirds of the residential urban area. A proportion understood as "certainly high."
13% of the island's coastline is artificial
Likewise, the demand for sun and beach tourism has been reflected in a fervent commitment to occupy the coastline of the islands. Where are these constructions distributed? "42% of the artificialized surface of Lanzarote is located in the first kilometer of coast," something that has increased in the last two decades, according to the notes of the document. A reflection of this is Playa Blanca (Yaiza), Puerto del Carmen (Tías) or Costa Teguise (Teguise).
In addition, the research concludes that "13% of the coastline" of the island is artificial. At the same time that tourist spaces draw the landscape of Lanzarote, the cultivated area has been reduced by almost half in a decade.
Total dependence on desalinated water
To respond to the demand for water, the production of desalinated drinking water is used, with the consequent burning of fossil fuels. "Hybrid surface resources can be considered null and underground resources extremely scarce with a salinized aquifer," reveals the aforementioned research.
According to the Energy Yearbook of the Canary Islands, 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions of the Islands occurred in the production of electricity. These include the production of desalinated water. In Lanzarote there are four large desalination plants and "a small proportion of reused water" that supply the island and tourist activity. In 2022, Lanzarote reached a record figure in water consumption, 12.27 million cubic meters, to which are added two million cubic meters of reused water.
"Estimates such as that made by the Biosphere Reserve indicate that tourist consumption (of water) at least doubled domestic consumption," asserts the Gaia Consultores research.
In addition, the island only generated 11.32% of renewable energy in 2021. By sectors, the aforementioned study reveals that the hospitality sector is a major consumer of the island's energy. At the same time, waste recycling is "very low" in this area.
The Zonzamas landfill, close to exhaustion
The Comprehensive Waste Plan of the Canary Islands (PIRCAN) states that the Zonzamas Environmental Complex expects "a significant future increase that makes it necessary to plan the adaptation of the facilities to the future capacities demanded." The highest peaks of waste generation occurred in 2017, the year of greatest tourist influx on the island.
In addition, the statistics collected in the carrying capacity analysis reveal that during the years 2020 and 2021, in which the restrictions due to coronavirus were still in force, 20% less waste was generated than in tourist periods.
To publicize the real accommodation offer, the island's carrying capacity research has taken into account not only the data of apartments and hotels, but also those of vacation rental housing.
Vacation housing, tourist density and overnight stays
Tourist saturation or overtourism is a concept coined in 2016 and that gained strength in the main urban tourist destinations such as Venice or Barcelona. Much earlier, in 2003, Lanzarote had declared its carrying capacity exhausted.
Likewise, the TRAN Committee of 2018 (Committee on Transport and Tourism of the European Parliament) defined tourist saturation as "a situation in which the impact of tourism, at certain times and places, exceeds the thresholds of physical, ecological, social, economic, psychological and/or political capacity."
The growth of accommodation capacity (territory, impacts on the natural environment, water, energy and waste) also influences the effects of mobility models or the definition of infrastructures.
How vacation housing has broken in
Vacation housing has increased by 6.5% in two years. Already in 2022, there were 6,826 vacation homes in Lanzarote, with 31,396 places, which represents 30% of the accommodation offer of the island. Based on the percentages of vacation housing that Mallorca allows in its Plan of Intervention of Tourist Areas (PIAT), Lanzarote "has far exceeded" its "ceiling" of vacation housing.
113.5 accommodation places per square kilometer
Likewise, tourist density, that is, the number of accommodation places per square kilometer, is a classic indicator of carrying capacity. Currently, on the island it is "practically doubled" compared to 2001, with 113.5 accommodation places per square kilometer. In comparison with tourist destinations such as Menorca there is a "higher density", even though it is a seasonal destination.
The figures for overnight stays or occupancy do not collect data on vacation housing. However, only counting hotels and conventional apartments, there are 21 million overnight stays in 2017, decreasing to over 18 million in 2019.
As for occupancy, it is higher than the Canarian average with a difference of seven percentage points in 2022. Occupancy has been growing since 2009 and also reached its maximum in 2017 with 79.06% of places occupied; 75.08% (2019) and 74.18% (2022).
In addition, in 2019, the reference year prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus, 220 establishments were registered open on the island. Meanwhile, the average rate per occupied room in tourist establishments was 99.10 euros in 2022, confirming a growing trend, is "slightly lower than the average of the Canary Islands and below the Balearic Islands."
