The Cabildo of Lanzarote wants tourism spending to revert more to the island's commerce. The news published by La Voz de Lanzarote brings to the table an issue that goes far beyond creating gastronomic routes or connecting hotels and shops: if tourists spend more and more, why does such a small part of that money end up on the streets? The debate about all-inclusive and how tourism spending is distributed is inevitable.
The news published by La Voz de Lanzarote about the strategy the Cabildo is preparing to ensure tourism spending boosts commerce more arrives at a particularly interesting time. The Minister of Commerce and Consumption, Armando Santana, has traveled to Malaga to learn about experiences that seek to connect hotels, restaurants, administrations, and commercial companies. They talk about gastronomic routes linked to local products, alliances between tourist establishments and shops, digitalization, and tools to better understand visitor consumption habits. It all sounds reasonable. But perhaps we should ask ourselves a much more uncomfortable question: why do we now need to seek formulas for tourist money to reach commerce if we have been talking for decades about tourism being the great economic engine of Lanzarote?
The answer may lie precisely in the evolution of the tourism model. Lanzarote has millions of visitors and high tourism spending. The problem does not seem to be that tourists arrive without money, but where that money ends up once it lands on the island. And there, the Cabildo's news opens a debate that deserves to be much deeper than a commercial campaign.
Available data show that Lanzarote's tourism spending exceeds 180 euros per day per visitor in certain recent periods. However, when this spending is broken down, a less spectacular reality for commerce appears: in the second quarter of 2026, the item corresponding to goods purchases stood at 4.9 euros per day. The bulk of spending is concentrated on accommodation and transport to the island, while other items such as restoration, internal transport, and leisure also have a significant weight.
That is why the challenge posed by the Cabildo is interesting. It is not simply about getting tourists to spend more. It is about getting a larger proportion of the money they are already willing to spend to circulate within the local economy.
And here comes the issue that inevitably accompanies this conversation: all-inclusive.
It's not about demonizing it. It's a legitimate commercial formula, it responds to a demand, and it offers the visitor the possibility of controlling a good part of their budget. But it also has an evident consequence: the more consumption is resolved within the hotel, the less need there is to go outside.
In Lanzarote, around 30.4% of tourists contracted this option in 2025. That is, approximately three out of every ten visitors arrived with a significant part of their vacation consumption already contracted. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, and entertainment can be included. If to that we add an increasingly complete hotel offering, the establishment can practically become a small destination within the destination.
And there lies the contradiction. The hotel wants the client to consume inside because that consumption is part of its business. The restaurant across the street needs them to go out. The shop wants them to come in. The artisan wants to sell to them. The excursion company wants them to book. The market wants them to visit it. Everyone competes, legitimately, for the same wallet.
That is why the news from the Cabildo should serve for more than just announcing meetings and future initiatives. It should open a conversation about how to design tourism that doesn't end at the hotel door.
Because if we want tourists to buy in Lanzarote, we will first have to get them to have reasons to go out and buy in Lanzarote. And there it makes sense to talk about gastronomic routes, local products, markets, digitalization, and agreements between hotels and shops, as the Cabildo proposes after its experience in Malaga.
Why can't a hotel truly recommend the shop that is 200 meters away? Why not establish stable agreements between tourist establishments and small local businesses? Why not create joint experiences between hotels, restaurants, wineries, artisans, shops, markets, and leisure companies? Why not ensure that the tourist receives more than a generic brochure at the hotel reception?
If we want money to circulate, we will have to build the bridges for it to circulate.
And it is also not advisable to frame this as a war between hotels and commerce. It would be a mistake. The hotel is part of Lanzarote and needs an attractive, vibrant island with an offering to sell its rooms. But Lanzarote also needs a portion of the spending generated by those rooms to reach the rest of its economic fabric.
The problem arises when the visitor can spend a week on the island without really needing to engage economically with the territory they are visiting. This can happen. And the more closed the consumption circuit within the accommodation, the greater that disconnection can be.
Hence, the debate about all-inclusive deserves a serious conversation. Not to ban it or demonize it, but to ask ourselves if we can design mechanisms that make this modality compatible with greater external consumption. The tourist can have their breakfast, lunch, and dinner paid for and, at the same time, discover a market, buy handicrafts, book an excursion, visit a restaurant, or purchase local products. The issue is to create the incentive and, above all, to ensure that the offering exists and is attractive.
Lanzarote has achieved something that is not easy: the tourist is willing to spend. Now it's time to ensure that this spending has more reach.
That it reaches the small restaurant. The family shop. The artisan. The local producer. The taxi driver. The excursion company. The market. The street commerce. Those who keep a shop open for twelve months a year waiting for someone to enter.
That is why the initiative taken by La Voz de Lanzarote can be a good opportunity to raise a fundamental issue. The objective should not be solely to increase tourist spending, but to increase its capacity to generate distributed economic activity within the island. The average tourist spending figure tells us how much money the visitor leaves; it does not tell us, on its own, how much of that money reaches small businesses.
Perhaps the time has come to stop measuring only how many tourists arrive and how much they spend, and to start looking more closely at how that spending is distributed when it arrives.
Because another visitor record always looks good in a headline. But for Lanzarote's commerce, the important question is different: how much of that record actually ends up in their tills?
Lanzarote does not only need tourists with spending capacity. It needs tourists who have reasons to spend in Lanzarote.
Therein lies the real challenge that the Cabildo's initiative leaves on the table.
Because the tourist already has their wallet.
Now we will have to ensure that when they open it, the island is on the other side.
SOURCES AND CONTEXTUAL DATA
• Main source: La Voz de Lanzarote, September 16, 2026, “The Cabildo seeks to boost Lanzarote's commerce with tourist spending”. The information covers the visit of counselor Armando Santana to Malaga and the initiatives studied to connect tourism and commerce.
• Tourist spending data: references from the Canary Islands Tourism Observatory/Promotur and tourist data disseminated by La Voz de Lanzarote on spending by category in Lanzarote.
• All-inclusive: data on the contracting of this modality in Lanzarote in 2025 and contextual documentation from the Economic and Social Council of the Canary Islands and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on its effects on spending and external consumption.
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