The news of the sale of Naviera Armas to foreign capital is not a simple business move: it is a reflection of a chronic problem in the Canary Islands. Here, when there is talk of investing, everything translates into hotels, vacation apartments and beach bars for tourism. As if our only vocation was to serve beds, wash dishes and smile at the visitor.
Meanwhile, strategic sectors such as maritime transport —key to our connectivity, to the economy and even to food sovereignty— end up in the hands of external funds. The same happens with energy, with logistics, with the light industry that never develops. We have convinced ourselves that tourism is enough, and so we continue: with all our eggs in the same basket.
It is not about despising tourism, but about recognizing that a balanced economy cannot live on a single sector. The Canary Islands have unique conditions to be much more: a strategic point between Europe, Africa and America; an ideal space for maritime research, for the port industry, for technology linked to renewable energies. But we continue to settle for the easiest and most dependent model: waiting for the tourist.
The sale of Naviera Armas should be a wake-up call to rethink our strategy. Could the Government of the Canary Islands really not lift a finger to keep this emblem in the hands of Canarian capital? Does the future of our connectivity really depend on the decision of funds that do not even know how to pronounce Lanzarote or La Gomera?
It is sad to see that, instead of diversifying, we continue to mortgage the future. The Canary Islands deserve to aspire to more, deserve to have industry, innovation, research. It deserves to believe in itself. And, above all, it deserves a Government that not only manages tourists, but also thinks about the generations that will come after the cruise ships leave and the hammocks are empty.
