The Lanzarote deputy of Nueva Canarias, Gladys Acuña, took advantage of the appearance of Isaac Castellano, Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, in the parliamentary commission of the area held this Thursday, to demand that the Executive hold a constructive debate that leads to urgent answers to the problem of the lack of housing in the Canary Islands, advocating for "a fair regulation for vacation homes and solutions for long-term housing", a problem that she recalled, "is no longer just for tourist destinations, but for the vast majority of the municipalities of the Islands".
Acuña expressly asked the Government to "not side with the hotel industry and to make a great effort to find solutions without preventing our people from obtaining a direct benefit." Acuña argued that in the face of such a complex problem "very clear rules of the game must be established."
On the other hand, the also mayor of the tourist municipality of Yaiza, defended in this same parliamentary commission the implementation of the tourist tax in the Canary Islands: "The tourist municipalities have an overload when providing services and the Government has to consider this specificity".
Gladys Acuña demands said tax in order to build and renovate infrastructures, emphasizing that "the money allocated for renovation in the Budgets of the Autonomous Community is clearly deficient".
Already last year Gladys Acuña proposed in Parliament a tax per daily stay per visitor in any type of accommodation establishment in order to invest that collection in the renovation of public spaces in tourist areas that have become obsolete and improve the competitiveness of the destination.
Then, she quantified the budget for diversity of actions in the Islands at 1,463 million euros. The renovation of tourist centers is a strategic task for the sector that cannot be addressed without financing, a reality and challenge that the Canary Islands face. The tax on tourist stays proposed by Nueva Canarias could have raised, only in 2016, between 80 and 104 million euros depending on the value of the tax, which would be about one euro per day per visitor.
