The spokesperson for the Nationalist Group in the Arrecife City Council, Echedey Eugenio, has stated that "CC already addressed and agreed on its position regarding cruise tourism on the island" and has emphasized that "the expansion of the port of Playa Blanca was never intended to replace that of the capital in cruise operations."
Eugenio has been so blunt after the claim of his party colleague, the deputy Oswaldo Betancort, after he urged the Government of the Canary Islands to expedite the procedures to convert the port of Playa Blanca into the second cruise dock of Lanzarote. "The cruise dock of Lanzarote is that of its capital, Arrecife," Eugenio pointed out, noting that "the current planning develops the infrastructures."
Betancort was the one who introduced the debate in a commission of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, although the CC spokesperson in the Arrecife City Council has relied on the statements made by the Minister of Transport of the Canarian Executive, Sebastián Franquis, to show his position. Thus, he points out that "one thing is to complement without implying any detriment to the port of Arrecife" and "another is the statements of the Minister that introduced a debate already overcome in the conejera society and in the Canarian Coalition." In this regard, it should be remembered that what Franquis stated in response to Oswaldo Betancort was that "the expansion of the port of Playa Blanca was not intended for cruise ships to operate, stating that if in a near scenario it is proposed, it would only be done "with the consensus of the Cabildo of Lanzarote."
However, Eugenio insists that "this issue was already the subject of debate in the Administrations in the past" and that "an island is not developed based on the occurrences of the politician on duty." "Both CC, the conejera society, and the tourism sector have already agreed on a development model that links the relationship of the two ports," adds the CC spokesperson in the Arrecife City Council, who reiterates that "the expansion of the port of Playa Blanca was never intended to replace that of the capital in cruise operations."
"Arrecife does not have hotel facilities and it is the cruise sector that is called upon to boost the local economy of the capital," said Echedey Eugenio, stating then that "the economic situation after Covid-19 and the hard time that the commerce of the capital is going through leave no room for this type of occurrences."