The brilliant General George Patton said that when everyone thinks alike, no one is thinking. And he was right.
One of the most widely shared ideas among the native population and many of the newcomers to Lanzarote is that the island is saturated and that tourism must be reduced, the population reduced, and even economic degrowth! The latter was said, with tele-preacher gesticulations, by the former vice president of the Canary Islands government, Román Rodríguez, on an electoral visit to the Arrecife Gran Hotel before the last regional and local elections, elections in which the Canarians, luckily, did not re-elect him.
But even people far from the political orbit of the pro-degrowth extreme left think that Lanzarote has reached some kind of limit. However, the truth could be the opposite, something that, as far as I know, is not shared by anyone.
In the last 30 years, the population of Lanzarote has doubled, from about 80,000 inhabitants to the current 160,000. If 30 years ago you had asked people what they thought about the fact that the population was going to double, they would have told you that it would be an economic and social disaster. And yet, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Lanzarote is better than ever and that is why people come to this island, not only as a tourism option but as a life option. Coming to live here is no longer a kind of forced exile as it was perceived decades ago, but is even envied by other citizens of the European continent. Today we have better infrastructure, we have more leisure opportunities, we have better services, better restaurants, better health, more medical specialties, better air connections and, basically, better everything. Even today we have a better society than in the past: more cosmopolitan, better educated and more egalitarian.
Oh yes! Many people will say things like how life was better in the past or that with growth the authenticity of "the conejero" is lost. However, those who say these things are only moved by the inertia that as people makes us automatically think that any time in the past was better. After all, we almost all long for the golden years of childhood when our mothers gave us a snack, surrounded us with their tender arms and sincerely told us how much they loved us while looking us in the eyes. What can surpass that?
But when one comes out of that inertia, one realizes that the present is better than ever, especially in the case of Lanzarote, an island that throughout its history was poor and miserable to the extreme. An island where people used to drink water from puddles when it rained, if it rained at all. The best book that has been written about the previous reality of the island is Tierras Sedientas, published in 1921 and written by González Díez. No one should opine in favor of limiting or decreasing the economy and population of Lanzarote without first reading that book.
Many say that life is worse now, but the data, common sense and my memory say otherwise. The Lanzarote of 2023 is much better than that of 1990. And the Lanzarote of 2023 is exponentially better than that of 1960 before tourism arrived. Having explained this, why do I believe that Lanzarote should reach half a million inhabitants?
Because it has been empirically demonstrated that growth has been good for everyone and, therefore, more economic and population growth can complete the long road we have traveled from the worst poverty in 1960, to living under European standards 60 years later.
Having more population, in the particular case of an island that is peripheral to the central islands of the Canary Islands and that in turn is peripheral to the European continent, makes a lot of sense. We still lack many things. We still lack services that do not come because we are too small. There are still medical specialties that are not there and that force us to travel because we are too few. There can still be more leisure, cultural and educational options if the resident market of Lanzarote were larger. We can still have a more cosmopolitan, more open, more advanced and vibrant population if we stop being a town to become a city. Moreover, if the population were larger, we would automatically reduce our dependence on tourism monoculture because a good part of the economy would be redirected to serve that population.
Note that I have not necessarily said that tourism should be increased, since what needs to be increased in tourism is above all quality, not quantity. And about the idea that there is no space to increase the population, please don't make me laugh. The population density of Lanzarote is approximately 200 inhabitants per square kilometer, a very moderate level. In the urban areas of Lanzarote, if there is anything that is left over, it is space. Enormous plots in Arrecife and surroundings, Puerto del Carmen, Costa Teguise or Playa Blanca that can accommodate that population growth without having to touch any more places on the island. In fact, that space should already be being built to alleviate the tensions that exist in the rental market.
I want the population to increase because I love this island and above all I want the island to reach its best possible version with the greatest number of opportunities for its inhabitants. In the case of Lanzarote, no time in the past was better. We may like images of the past because we are invaded by the melancholy of what is gone. But that is not thinking with your head. Only the already rich want things not to change because they are doing very well. But if you are middle class or lower, you should want much more growth and opportunities, not the opposite.
Finally, we must talk about where we should attract that population from and what type of population we want to come. Of course, we must fish above all among European fellow citizens who may wish to have a first or second residence on the island. Thanks to how cheap transport is today, many European high population density centers are very well connected with Lanzarote. Places like northern Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and, of course, the rest of Spain. Of course, we should attract people with a high level of education and with jobs that can be developed remotely in order to reduce dependence on tourism. But also, of course, above all we must be a land that welcomes everyone who wants to fight for their advancement and progress. Because only open places that want to progress, really advance for the better.
The opposite, decreasing, limiting and closing, is typical of places that walk backwards. In the end we have to choose if we want to live better or if we want to drink from the puddles again. You choose.
