Aetur believes that ignoring the illegal operation of the villas stimulates the growth of supply outside the law

The Lanzarote Tourist Business Federation (Aetur) is fed up with the fact that illegality continues to prevail on the Island. Its president, Gerardo Fontes, who never tires of denouncing the abuses against the interests of the employers that ...

September 1 2005 (22:05 WEST)
Aetur believes that ignoring the illegal operation of the villas stimulates the growth of supply outside the law
Aetur believes that ignoring the illegal operation of the villas stimulates the growth of supply outside the law

The Lanzarote Tourist Business Federation (Aetur) is fed up with the fact that illegality continues to prevail on the Island. Its president, Gerardo Fontes, who never tires of denouncing the abuses against the interests of the employers he represents, believes that just as the Cabildo announces with great fanfare that hotels are going to be closed in Playa Blanca and Costa Teguise, the 4,000 tourist villas that, according to him, operate outside the law and continue to bleed the economic engine of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands, should also be closed immediately.

"That situation is distorting the entire tourist market of Lanzarote," the businessman declared. "All we ask is for the law to be complied with," he added.

The best of incentives

Fontes stated that letting things go and letting things pass becomes the best incentive for those who comply with the regulations to the letter and pay their taxes to refrain from doing so in the future. Aetur hopes that the current Cabildo government group will demonstrate with facts the intention of regularizing the villas that meet the requirements and of sanctioning and closing those that definitely cannot compete in the market. "If things are not fixed, we will abandon the ship, and that means moving to the side of those who do not comply with the law," said Fontes.

The Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manuel Fajardo Feo, promised, in a meeting he held with the employers recently, that the Executive would study the possibility of issuing new regulations for accommodation establishments that respond to the demands of the sector.

The Cabildo waits for the Executive

The Councilor for Tourism Planning and New Technologies of the Cabildo, Ángeles García, reported that the results of the voluntary census of tourist villas promoted by the Corporation, when the then Department of Interior Tourism was in the hands of María Dolores Luzardo, were transferred to the Department of the regional Executive, but said Area has not yet taken any determination regarding the census. García assumes that the initiative would not make sense if no action is taken to regularize the villas that could enter to operate within the law. "We made this known to the Minister of Tourism of the Government," commented the head of Tourism Planning of the Cabildo.

The Government has the will to legalize them from the tourist point of view, but also urged the Cabildo to address the regulation of the villas from the territorial scope, because it would be impossible to grant them the operating license, if they are not framed within the territorial planning.

513 signed up

It should be remembered that in the voluntary census completed in December 2004, a total of 513 illegal tourist villas signed up, most of them located in the municipality of Tías (244). In addition, the municipality of Yaiza registers 228 registered villas, Teguise 10, Haría 11, Tinajo 8 and San Bartolomé 12. As a whole, the villas represent around 3,000 tourist places. The objective of the census was obviously to know the number of tourist villas and their location on the Island, but also to know the will that the owners had to legalize them.

In any case, the census, which did not guarantee the owners the legalization of the accommodation establishments, coincided with the famous investigation developed by the Government on all the accommodation offer of the Canary Islands. The results of this survey are still unknown despite the fact that the general director of Tourism Planning and Promotion, Raimundo Domínguez, has promised its publication on more than one occasion.

They are in demand

Manuel Fajardo Feo said in an interview granted to La Voz that tourist villas are a service that is in demand. Therefore, as a competitive tourist destination, we must respond to it in conditions. That does not mean that the service should be offered in any way and skipping the law to satisfy the needs of customers. "The service must be given regulated and within the planning," said Fajardo Feo.

The councilor declared that the activity will have to be regulated within the specific modification that is intended to be made to the Tourism Law, but apart from that, the inspection and sanctions service will have to be reinforced. The Executive believes that the perspective that it is a product that is in demand and that for that reason it must be offered with total quality should not be lost.

The profile of the client who reserves a villa is that of a person who rents a good car and who consumes without hesitation in restaurants and commerce in general. In short, the client of the villa does not go to the destination for being the destination, but goes to the destination because he is offered a villa.

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