The Official Gazette of the Canary Islands publishes this Wednesday the agreement that regulates the management assignment of the camel ride service in the Timanfaya National Park, as well as the update of rates for visitors.
These rates come into effect from this Thursday, August 25, with the price of 11 euros per person or trip, or 9.50 euros for users who contract the service in advance through agencies or tour operators. For children up to 3 years of age, the service will be free as long as they are accompanied by at least one adult.
“The new rates are determined by socio-economic studies drafted and supported by both the Yaiza City Council and the camel sector that operates in Timanfaya,” says the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda.
“We manage with the support of the Cabildo of Lanzarote and the Government of the Canary Islands this fair demand from the camel drivers, who for 13 years had not seen an increase in rates for the provision of an essential service for tourism in Lanzarote, despite the exponential increase in the costs of maintaining the animals and the cost of living in general,” adds Noda.
The municipal president and the delegate councilor Águeda Cedrés, visited the Timanfaya camel station this Wednesday to inform camel drivers and service controllers of the entry into force of the new rates. “The camel is an animal that occupies a special place in the history of the primary sector of Lanzarote. Since the fifties there has been evidence of the first camel rides through the Mountains of Fire and today it is a sustainable tourist activity that means the survival of about forty families from Uga, apart from the direct and indirect jobs generated by this activity,” says the mayor.
The Yaiza City Council also announces that it retains, for its expenses associated with the service, 10 percent of each rate that is applied. The Institution has among its obligations "the organization of the service with personnel in charge of it, facilitating camel drivers their accreditation for the provision of the service, ensuring the uniformity of the workers in the sector, planning the service based on demand, without exceeding the load capacity of both the parking lot and the path and resting place for camels and organizing daily trips between service providers based on the number of licenses and in strict order of registration".
“The camel sector will always have our hand extended because we understand that the camel ride service in Timanfaya is a work of joining efforts, which represents one of the most demanded and representative images of the municipality and Lanzarote of which we are very proud and in which we recognize the sacrifice of several generations of families linked to the primary sector,” concludes Noda.
