“The future of Tenerife lies in improving the current hotel facilities and overcoming the great infrastructure deficit suffered by the Island,” José Fernando Cabrera, a hotel entrepreneur and president of the Forum of Friends of the South of Tenerife, assured this newspaper (FAST).
In his opinion, the Island has a “natural moratorium”, since it barely has “20 or 30 plots of tourist land”, for which he considers that the offer will practically not grow in the coming years, “except for some luxury complex punctual”, which forces, he explains, to raise the category of a part of the current establishments to improve the plant and widen the labor market. “A hotel that goes from 3 to 4 stars can afford to employ between 10 and 30% more staff and pay them better, so this leap in quality is key to combating the 20% structural unemployment rate on the Island,” he says. the.
In addition, he regrets that public infrastructure, “the basis of economic and social development”, accumulates a considerable delay, and criticizes the role of those who, without entering into debates, say no to major projects: “Before the announcement of any work, opponents come out the next day without material time or scientific basis to study its drawbacks while the social majority remains silent”.
The former president of Ashotel affirms that Tenerife has doubled the number of tourists in the last three decades and believes that the limit is around 6 million visitors a year, due to the number of places available and the carrying capacity of the territory, a circumstance that is reflected in the traffic congestion on the highways and in the problems for wastewater treatment, he points out. However, it clarifies that the greatest pressure on the territory is not generated by tourism, since it represents less than 13% of the total population -around 118,000 tourists spend the night in Tenerife daily-, “when it produces 35% of the income direct”. It also highlights that the number of inhabitants of the Archipelago has grown by 30% (600,000 people) in the last 20 years, which leads the president of FAST to defend “a serious study” on the island’s capacity, in which “the University should put order.
Regarding the possibility that other sectors could gain more weight in the island economy, José Fernando Cabrera is skeptical: “The Canary Islands do not have raw materials, except for the sun and the wind, and the few centers with research capacity that exist have not transferred technology to set up industries around it”, he maintains.
On the other hand, he considers the audiovisual sector “a very interesting niche”, but believes that the Treasury inspection is “a big brake” on its take-off. He reiterates his support for renewable energies, although he points out that “they are highly automated installations that hardly create jobs”, and in terms of agriculture he stresses that small farms prevent mechanization, without forgetting the problems of the steep terrain or the high cost of water.
With this scenario, the president of FAST estimates that the future lies in the improvement of the tourist offer, “given the impossibility of building more factories (referring to new hotels):” It is the only way to begin to solve the very serious structural unemployment and the 30,000 people who arrive from different European countries to the Islands every year”.
Cabrera insists that Tenerife is a medium-high level destination, and asks the Government of the Canary Islands to raise the bar when it comes to classifying five-star and luxury hotels. Finally, he warns of the effect of the conversion of tourist complexes into vacation or residential homes. “In that case the factory is reduced to a small workshop, in terms of employment,” he maintains.
