The island secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote and deputy in Congress, María Dolores Corujo, has accused Oswaldo Betancort of promoting a new “hotel avalanche” since January 2024, at least eight new hotel projects on the island have been approved or are in process. The PSOE believes that "this information shows Betancort's willingness to maintain unlimited tourism growth, ignoring the citizens' demand for a moratorium."
Corujo has revealed that "among the new projects are four five-star hotels and apartments in Playa Blanca, some of them already with favorable reports, such as the 5-star hotel in Montaña Roja, promoted by Relaxia, with 431 new places, or the hotel establishment planned on plot 135-A of the Playa Blanca Partial Plan, promoted by the entity Sand Beach S.L., with 573 places."
"These are added to the residential tourist complex of partial plan 4-F, promoted by Holiday Park Resort, with 459 places, and another establishment with 524 beds still in the processing phase. With just these authorizations, Oswaldo Betancort will allow the number of beds to increase by almost 2,000 more beds," he assured.
The socialist leader recalled that "since Oswaldo Betancort has been president, he has granted numerous tourist authorizations that have allowed a total of another 2,000 beds to be put on the market, such as the one granted to TOSCOLANZ S.L. to build a four-star hotel with 170 accommodation units and 407 places on plot 214 of Costa Teguise; the permit for a tourist apartment complex with 292 places also in Costa Teguise; the hotel in Playa Blanca that will add another 684 places; and the 765 beds authorized to the illegal Papagayo Arena hotel, despite its multiple urban irregularities."
“The list of new hotel licenses is proof that Coalición Canaria continues to sell Lanzarote to the highest bidder while the local population suffers an increasingly suffocating housing emergency, water cuts and the precariousness of public services,” Corujo denounced.
The socialist leader has criticized the “submission to the economic power of those who govern for a few”: “It is evident that Oswaldo Betancort and his government group have no intention of stopping the expansion of tourism. Quite the opposite. They are destroying the island by fattening the model that has brought us to this limit situation.”
The socialist leader recalled that "the PSOE has been demanding for months the application of an urgent moratorium on tourist beds and the implementation of an eco-tax to redistribute the wealth generated by tourism." “It cannot be that the benefits are concentrated in the hands of the usual people while the majority of citizens cannot access decent housing or have guaranteed quality public services. This model has expired and what is at stake is the dignity of our land and our people," he concluded.
