The Lanzarote business associations continue to grapple with certain statements of denunciation about the "supposed bad tourist image" caused abroad by the internationalization strategy of the cause against oil exploration being carried out in the Canary Islands; that is, taking the opposition and rejection of their realization to as many forums as possible.
On this occasion, the complaint is made specifically and simply for allowing the exhibition of a small leaflet, of about 10 x 8 cm, approximately, in the Lanzarote stand at the ITB fair in Berlin, announcing a conference that would take place outside this event and without said leaflet having any "image of black beaches on the island", as they have stated, or the matter being the subject of debate by the Cabildo within the fair itself. By the way, I have not heard any of these Lanzarote business associations criticize the conduct of the President of the Government of the Canary Islands when in his institutional speech he has made accurate allusions to this threat in each and every one of his interventions, and in each and every one of the tourism fairs he and the business associations attend. It must have been an oversight.
For obvious reasons, the administration in general, and I in particular, need a cordial relationship with business associations and my vocation as president of the Cabildo cannot be otherwise. I will say more, despite my humble origins and a present unrelated to any business activity, I have always been proud and have defended the importance of the local business fabric as a true engine of the economy and job creator, and I feel very far from the approaches that, so populist and electorally, demonize every businessman by system.
So much so that, not in vain and despite the political, union and social cost that I paid for it in its day, it was precisely I who proposed, ignoring those dissenting voices, to give voice and vote to the tourism business associations in the three Boards of Directors of the three entities that in my political career I have had the honor of creating, being its first CEO. Boards of Directors that have managed both the Tourist Centers of Lanzarote and the island's tourism promotion (CACTSA, transformed into EPEL-CACT, and the mixed promotion company SPEL) and CEOs of these three entities that -by the way- it has been under my mandate in the presidency when, also attending to an aspiration of the business associations and to the own conviction of its convenience, have ceased to be represented by political positions to be occupied by technicians and, in this way, advance in the professionalization of these entities.
Now, let the business associations not confuse consideration with submission to their dictates and variable position in some cases.
It is true that already in my visit to Washington, to present the Lanzarote project as a pilot experience of a sustainable destination in the world, during a meeting of the board of directors of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) of the United Nations, the island's tourism business association expressed its disagreement with this internationalization strategy that the administrations that represent the popular sovereignty of the Canary Islands in democracy have undertaken. I already clarified to them then what I am now obliged to reiterate. And the Cabildo reserves the right to defend the general interest of Lanzarote in this fight, including especially theirs, against the exclusive interests of three multinationals that together with the Spanish Ministry intend to manipulate us on behalf of the Spanish trade balance and energy dependence, as if the oil, if there were any and exploited it, would become Spanish and not of REPSOL and its shareholders of mostly foreign capital.
And in this fight, we are going to continue defending those interests when, where and how we deem appropriate without needing to have their approval, nor attend to their position that, I insist and will demonstrate, has been variable over time. I wish it could be with their support as we had in the past, or as the popular governments of the Balearic Islands and Valencia, respectively, have today from their tourism business associations, or as the business associations that represent tourism intermediation in Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and a long etcetera have also warned. In short, those who represent 80% of our potential clients have not hesitated to publicly warn the Spanish Government of the danger that this industry poses to the interests of the Canary Islands destination. They, the large operators and tourism agents, are defending the interests of the Canarians, unlike what is happening here now with the positioning of the business associations, although -as I said- it was not always like this and I will accredit it in this article.
Is there anyone who throws stones at their roof harming the image of what they live on? Of course not, I don't think there is absolutely anyone in Europe capable of confusing a campaign against the threat of oil with the announcement of an oil catastrophe that has not taken place, but it seems that in the Canary Islands there are those who confuse it or want to confuse it.
And we reserve that right, to which I alluded, among other things because, as corroborated by a report prepared in this regard by the professor of tourism marketing at the University of Tourism of Lanzarote -today CEO of the Foreign Promotion Society-, highlighting the environmental quality of Lanzarote and its waters, warning of the risk they run, not only does not harm our image but just the opposite, it strengthens it precisely in what our potential visitors value most. Without going any further, despite my representation in Washington and the launched campaign to internationalize this cause that we undertook some time ago, we have been breaking attendance figures and we intend to continue doing so if the true and authentic threat to our tourist image is not consummated in Canary waters that these business associations now do not want to see, that is, the explorations and the development of an oil industry in our archipelago.
Why do I say that they have changed their position? Simply, because it is not true, as they claim, that "these business associations have not positioned themselves either for or against the explorations". At least it is not in the case of the Asolan business association, which brings together the largest number of tourist beds in Lanzarote. It is not true because, on the contrary, in 2001 when the same and identical explorations were approved for the first time, this business association spoke out issuing a public statement that can be read in the archive or newspaper library of any digital newspaper, or in the link http://www.labolsa.com/noticias/20011226172748001/asolan-rechaza-las-prospecciones-petroliferas-en-la-zona-maritima-proxima-a-lanzarote-y-fuerteventura/, manifesting in it an unequivocal and resounding rejection of the explorations. Statement that now seemed not to exist and then should not damage the tourist image of Lanzarote, this last fact with which I agree. I wonder, what will have changed since then? But a priori I only manage to answer myself that this is not that central government and that then neither the Minister of Industry coincided with the Minister of Tourism, nor was this the president of the Canarian Popular Party, Mr. Soria. But I would like to believe that such differences have nothing to do with their change of position and criteria. Surely not.
From these lines I encourage the Canarian business associations, especially the tourist ones and the Popular Party, to be more consistent in this matter of the oil industry with the interests that, in my opinion, they should defend in another way, as do the business associations and the governments of other tourist communities in the national territory against this threat, even if they are of the same political color as the central government, clear proof that this is not a political war but of common sense. We also need them.
Pedro San Ginés Gutiérrez, president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote
