“…The important thing is to appreciate that we are replicating a model that is by definition unsustainable. And they don't want to see that. The worst thing is that a lucid current that indicates the way is not detected… “. (Extreme conversations with the Master).
That Lanzarote is an island that suffers from success, speaking in terms of tourist influx, is obvious. I don't think anyone can question this by simply appealing to mathematics (there are periodic statistical balances to assess the economic impacts). The territorial capacity compared to the tourist influx leads you, again and again, to the same result: the tourism sector has acquired a notable relevance in the generation of income and jobs, showing at the same time, perverse and bloody side effects, in energy terms, waste generation, transformation of ecosystems, social protection, etc. And the truth is, there are plenty of reports, studies or expert evaluations; there is plenty of interested awareness of leading custodians of natural environments; there are plenty of ideological slogans from "one side and the other". By taking a walk around "Zarote" you can see the excess, this disproportionate growth...
For some it is so profitable, politically speaking, to take refuge in data, statistics and diagnoses, to demand actions and denounce external impunity...
The problem is that they remain in the proclamation of the complaint, in fireworks that are protected in headlines and marketing operations. They have specialized in the externalization of difficulties, showing great capacity for abstraction of their responsibilities. They coin intrepid terms in property (saturation, social justice, sustainability) to reach the same space: nothing that reacts to the vacuum of substance. It does not seem like a reliable approach to modify the problem.
For their part, the others are entrenched in the lack of coherence of the former, appealing to their eternal demagogic negligence and constant dissidence. They raise the need to reformulate the economic model from an improvement at organizational levels.
While this perspective based on rethinking primary premises in public management is interesting, they have fallen into the eternal trap of denying the majority, that is, the disproportion of the exorbitant growth of the tourist load compared to the limitations of the island territory. They must understand that not everything can be addressed from a change of management, necessary of course, but insufficient. Special and forceful measures must be adopted in issues such as waste, transport-mobility, the uncontrollable and strong consumption of water and energy, the contamination of vulnerable territories, etc. For this reason, a structural depth of the administrations is demanded, significantly affecting their will to plan effectively and simply actions with the purpose of promoting a change of course in the model that not only seeks economic profitability and growth.
I have said it on other occasions and I repeat myself... Saturation is not limited to the territory/tourism binomial. The real saturation is given in the political plane. The taking of decisions with courage that allow to protect the social interests, as well as the natural environments without conflicts, without externalizing faults nor generating phobias is missed. If it is not like that, the myth of Easter Island will be fulfilled in Lanzarote. Very soon we will know…
