The Vice President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Román Rodríguez, presented in Lanzarote the first of the four Conferences on Renovation and Tourist Modernization of the Canary Islands. This initiative will tour three other Canary Islands: Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, in that order.
The also Minister of Finance, Budgets and European Affairs has stated in Lanzarote that “it is time to rethink again what we have to do in the Islands to grow in a better way and guarantee the future of the irreplaceable tourist activity”. He spoke in these terms this past Tuesday.
Twenty years have passed since the General Planning Guidelines and the Tourism Planning Guidelines of the Canary Islands were approved, aimed at defining a sustainable growth model, and a tourism system "contained and compatible" with environmental protection, the size of public services and the demographic challenge, the institution said in a statement.
During his speech, Rodríguez insisted that "the lack of planning and organization in recent decades" has generated an intense growth in population, the vehicle fleet, waste generation, or energy demand that "is consuming a large amount of resources and deteriorating the territory, our most precious asset and on which our tourist strength pivots.”
The vice president assured that the time has come to reflect on this again and promote consensus on the future of the tourism sector, “because fortunately we have the capacity to make our own decisions as a people.”
“Tourism -he continued- is an irreplaceable activity for the Canary Islands and, precisely, because it is our most strategic sector, we have to take care of it and guarantee its future forever, doing things well and learning from the successes and mistakes made in the past.”
To achieve this, Rodríguez is committed to "modernizing" public spaces in tourist centers and "renovating" the old accommodation plant with "fiscal and building incentives."
The president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, considered that “it is a good time to bet on rehabilitation”, although she pointed out that its incentives should be rethought and avoid one of them being the authorization of a greater number of beds.
Corujo recalled that the town of Puerto del Carmen was the first tourist center to join the Tourism Modernization plans on the island and that it will now join the second, an initiative that she hoped would also occur in other mature tourist enclaves.
In this sense, she assured that “we are all interested in having the best possible tourism industry, and, therefore, to achieve success, public authorities and private initiative have to strive; we have to strive to dialogue, find common ground, work together and do everything possible to offer a unique and excellent destination that guarantees an unforgettable experience for our visitors.”
Corujo stressed that the Plan 'Lanzarote, the energy of the land' responds to these criteria, an initiative and responsibility of the Cabildo that has a total budget of 5 million euros in 3 years. This is a Tourism Sustainability Plan to improve the offer that will add value to urban environments and centers linked to tourism.
Four conferences on four islands
The conferences on renovation and tourist modernization in the Canary Islands take place when this year marks a decade since the entry into force of Law 2/2013 on Renovation and Tourist Modernization and aim to revitalize the strategy that gave rise to the norm and protected numerous rehabilitation projects in Canarian tourist enclaves.
In collaboration with Castellano Estudio, the next conferences will take place in Tenerife, this Friday the 24th; in Fuerteventura, on Monday the 27th, and in Gran Canaria, on Friday the 31st. They are aimed at the business tourism sector as a whole, accommodation and complementary offer, as well as the different public administrations linked to the activity and have the participation of experts and technicians.
Each of the sessions will be divided into four blocks, in which there will be space for institutional interventions, for the analysis of four successful initiatives in the field, for presentations and for a round table.
The presentations will be given by the architect Rafel Castellano, who will address the current scenario of tourist renovation; the jurist Rosa Martínez who, representing Montero Aramburu Abogados, will speak about the validity of Law 2/2013; the tax specialist Manuel García, from D&M Asesores, who will address tax incentives in the renovation, and David Hoys, from Dyrecto Consultores, who will refer to subsidies for tourism projects.