The national general secretary of CC, Fernando Clavijo, has affirmed this Saturday that the Canary Islands "can and must" lead the way towards sustainable tourism.
In the framework of the dialogue 'Let's project the future together. Canarias te necesita' held in Lanzarote and promoted in order to collect the ideas and proposals of the productive sectors, the nationalist bet on "projecting and building that Canary Islands of opportunities, that Canary Islands of talent in which we believe".
Clavijo pointed to tourism as one of the sectors "most punished if not the most" by a global pandemic that "forces us to make a change of perspective without discarding all the work that has been done so far to turn the Islands into a first-class destination".
Thus, he assured that "without ignoring that the health crisis and restrictions will not be overcome overnight, we must work hand in hand with the sector to move towards a new tourism model" because, he insisted, "diversification is necessary, but it must be done from and from tourism".
Similarly, he lamented that "until now the economic engine of the Islands has been ignored." "The PSOE has not known and has not wanted to understand that tourism is the cornerstone of the Canarian economy," he said.
"He refused a specific rescue plan for the Canarian tourism sector --he added-- and tried to justify in a package of aid to the Islands the sustainability of a sector that needs much more to overcome the 18.1% drop in GDP recorded in the first year of the pandemic or the loss of more than 70% in the arrival of tourists and a drop in employment that exceeded 360,000 people."
He also criticized that "to this day, administrations continue to improvise palliative measures to contain the different waves, but continue without enabling tools capable of curing, of strengthening tourism and with it, the primary sector, industry, the economic and commercial fabric, transport, in short, the rest of sectors and subsectors that depend on the arrival of tourists".
For this reason, he pointed out "today we talk with the sector of modernization and excellence of tourism, because it is possible to reinvent the sector, adapt it to the new reality and continue to consolidate the Canary Islands as a leading destination in Europe not only in overnight stays but in innovation, in modernization and in excellence".
Finally, the national leader insisted on the need to rethink the tourism model, to "work on a more sustainable model that has a direct impact on improving economic and social well-being, encouraging the benefits of tourism to extend to the Canaries and Canarians and those who visit us, to local activities and, ultimately, to our land".
In this sense, he pointed out "it is very important that the sector helps us to project that future together and that citizens are encouraged to make their contributions to plan a path that allows us to consolidate a less dependent and responsible tourism sector with the Islands".
