SEPTEMBER 27th, International Tourism Day since 1980, commemorating the approval of the Statutes of the World Tourism Organization on September 27, 1970.
Inviting the debate
Good times are, without a doubt, what our leading industry is experiencing right now. After a spectacular 2014, we are once again improving visitor data every month, and our year-to-date figures already reach 1,667,978 tourists, a 3.60% increase compared to the January-August period of the "extraordinary" previous year.
Undoubtedly, these are indicators that we are on the right track and that the joint work undertaken by public and private entities working in the sector through the SPEL is beginning to yield the expected results. This is a day of gratitude to all those who, in one way or another, contribute to making Lanzarote an appealing tourist destination that offers answers to the demands of the increasingly demanding range of issuers, even improving this last month.
These good figures, however, should not serve to relax us or to fall into complacency, but to initiate a calm and orderly dialogue about where we are and where we want to go. Tourism is everything on this island, and we ALL must sit down to decide on its future.
We must start the debate about our accommodation offer. No one has yet put on the table how many and what type of beds we should offer to our visitors, and what and why our growth limit should be. We are an island, a limited territory, and our natural landscapes are one of our main attractions, but are there more beds available, are some superfluous, or should we simply requalify and stay as we are? The obsolete Island Plan of 1991 dictated a maximum ceiling of approximately 105,000 beds for this island, but the reality is that we closed August with 95.5% hotel occupancy. It seems clear, then, with the data in hand, that the options are to expand the offer, or to qualify the existing one so that this figure not only remains but can generate more economy.
We demand from a "deaf" Spanish State the need to improve our Guacimeta runway, and from Madrid they respond, instead, on paper, placing us at the level of Gando or Reina Sofía, which, due to their conditions, can aspire to other types of aircraft but apply the same policy of aeronautical fees as Lanzarote. AENA must compensate the destination so that we can compete on equal terms, and the solutions, of course, are two: either improve our runway so that the fees paid are adjusted to the service provided and we can start the search for the American market and consider more distant destinations, or reduce them so that we improve our competitiveness and the destination is more interesting to operators and companies in consolidated countries for which the current runway allows operation without complications.
We fill our mouths talking about Sustainable Destination and the beauty of our landscapes, but, on the other hand, we are legislated so that they are abandoned and deteriorate. The Special Plan of La Geria and the P.R.U.G. of the Chinijo Archipelago are clear examples of how to create regulations so that nothing can be touched. No office legislator should create a rule without knowing the environment on which it will mark the steps. The farmers and winegrowers of La Geria, or the fishermen and residents of La Graciosa and La Caleta have much to say about the regulations that affect them. La Geria or the Chinijo Archipelago were not created under the umbrella of any restrictive regulations but by the hand of those who, from their origins, took from them and with the most exquisite respect their fruit for decades.
We must also consider what type of service we want to give to our visitors because, it is not acceptable, that in the best tourist figures in history, our unemployment rates or the precariousness of our contracts continue to be historical. The Tourist's experience in Lanzarote is always imbued with the kindness and hospitality of our people and, without a doubt, that invites us to build a service destination that not only improves the experience of our tourists but also the well-being and employment of our society. For this we must walk hand in hand with the qualification and training of our people, we must be references in professional and university training, as well as specialization of our people. Our educational centers and the University School of Tourism have an important role in this, which we must also sit at that "dialogue table".
Consolidating the destination as a sports, gastronomic, cultural or experiential destination is one of the paths initiated without forgetting that being, also, a sun and beach destination, complements the offer to "win" against other destinations that also offer it. Using new technologies to measure the experience of our visitors and respond in real time to their demands is a technically viable possibility, which will make us take a qualitative leap and place us as a reference in the world market. An island Biosphere Reserve, belonging to the world network of GEOPARKS and with so many things and experiences to live a short distance from each other cannot miss the train of technology to know and measure what our visitors demand from us at all times. Tourism is an industry of constant changes and being prepared to react to them immediately will place us at the forefront of intelligent destinations.
No agent can be missing at the table. We ALL add up in the Lanzarote destination and the objective is clearer than ever, TO BECOME A REFERENCE DESTINATION TO IMPROVE OUR SOCIETY WITHOUT LOSING OUR IDENTITY.
Enjoy Tourism Day because there is a lot of work to do.
Echedey Eugenio Felipe, Tourism Councilor of the Cabildo de Lanzarote.