A few days ago, the Cabildo presented the new corporate image of Turismo de Lanzarote. The new slogan is "LANZAROTE IS DIFFERENT." And certainly Lanzarote has been a different island since the seventies and we all know why. The question here is, how much longer will it be if all the infrastructure projects on the table are developed? Will Lanzarote be an island different from others or from any European city if it develops scalextrix, highways from Yaiza to Playa Blanca, if it brings cruises to Playa Blanca? Will Lanzarote be a different island if it leaves the traffic jams in Timanfaya?
What does a tourist destination do to be different? These days, a photovoltaic park has been approved in Guía de Isora in Tenerife, and it is a town in which the Ptcan proposes photovoltaic parks throughout its surface, but at the same time the town hall of that municipality proposes luxury hotels, in fact there are already several operating. I wonder if this combines well, if the government/misgovernment of the Canary Islands has considered this. Projects are approved, rights are granted to businessmen without knowing what the final result will be. On the other hand, they are managing the financing to build trains on the capital islands, which will occupy a lot of land, and will not solve much the problem of mobility because for example in the south of Tenerife the train will arrive to Los Cristianos and if people work in Costa Adeje, they must take another bus to get to their job, so if they live in the metropolitan area it will take a long time to get to work every day.
In Fuerteventura we all know the wind turbines they want to put, in addition the ordinance of renewables commissioned by the Cabildo proposes to surround Puerto del Rosario with photovoltaics. Gran Canaria has not opted for the preservation of its landscapes and aesthetics either.
So within the Canary Islands, Lanzarote is still a different island, but until when? And why is Lanzarote different? Well, clearly because since the seventies it was decided that it would be chosen to preserve each stone, each little wall, each little farm. Why are we more frightened by the Red Eléctrica towers through Los Ajaches than by the highway project from Yaiza to Playa Blanca? Isn't the mess on one side and the other just as ugly? Doesn't the surroundings of the town of Yaiza, the surroundings of the Timanfaya National Park deserve the same respect as the bare mountains of Los Ajaches?
The Spanish coast is being filled with renewables, also many inland towns. The landscapes are being equalized everywhere with those gadgets that it is not known if they will really produce all the energy that is promised.
Lanzarote really has the opportunity to continue being a different island if we stop making macro-infrastructures, and continue on the path of respecting each stone, each little farm, if we leave those scalextrix, those highways on an island of twenty km wide and look for different solutions made to measure. If we think about what the landscape of the other islands will be like in fifteen years, after they develop all those projects that they are approving, and we simulate the final result we can see that it will be quite ugly.
Then all of us from Lanzarote must advocate for maintaining this island in its original state, as faithful to itself as possible and focus on that, in that we want to continue being different in the best sense of the expression.