Valbuena assures that “it is not about kicking anyone out” but warns of the search for solutions because the archipelago “has a limit”
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Dec. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Ecological Transition, Territorial Planning and the Fight against Climate Change of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena, has advanced this Tuesday before the Plenary Session of Parliament that if all the planned tourist land is developed, the archipelago would go from 480,000 places to about 700,000, with a capacity to accommodate up to 22.3 million tourists, which would raise the fixed population to 2.8 million people.
Valbuena has exposed before the Chamber the preliminary details of a study prepared by his department –with data from Grafcan, Istac and other administrations– that analyzes hotel and extra-hotel beds, without taking into account vacation rentals, rural hotels, accommodation for golf or emblematic hotels.
He commented that 843 geographical enclosures have been detected and that accommodation capacity has dropped by 10% in the last ten years –there are 480,000 beds of which 350,000 are in use–, with a 49% drop in the number of apartments and an increase of 10% in the hotel industry.
Lanzarote has 78,000 beds and potential growth of another 55,000 (+70%); Fuerteventura can grow by up to 87%; Gran Canaria has 160,000 beds and a potential growth of 36%; Tenerife, 170,000 and 27% more potential; La Gomera, 3,200 beds and a possible growth of 157%; La Palma, 5,000 –places have been lost due to the volcano– and a potential of 45% more and El Hierro, which aspires to grow 118% more.
Valbuena has commented that “it can’t stand” that it can go from 150 million overnight stays to 223 million per year -30% from tourism- apart from the fact that “there is no direct relationship between more tourism and more wealth”.
He has admitted that the Canary Islands must move towards land recovery, a “delicate” process but one that “can be done well”, giving the 2001 moratorium as an example, with many demands “and none accepted” and the 2009 guidelines that will cost “a lazy million with firm sentences”.
For this reason, he has urged to adapt all the general plans of the islands to the land law – only El Pinar has it – since the Canary Islands “have a limit” and it must be calibrated well. “It is not about kicking anyone out but finding the great solution that the archipelago needs,” he pointed out.
He has also said that “no one has demonized tourism” because “any activity that respects the territory, that generates wealth and distributes it, has its doors open”, for example ‘Dreamland’, although he has proposed that it be located on industrial land. “I even take cakes from mine”, he has ironized her.
Valbuena has commented that the Canary Islands cannot be “ashamed” of their tourism development” but you have to know how to steer the ship” given that the growth ceiling “is excessive” and “it must be changed” so that growth is not at the expense of the quality of life of the citizens because in the ‘green islands’, for example, accommodation places have been lost.
YES WE CAN ASK FOR LAND RECLASSIFICATION AND ANOTHER MORATORIUM
Francisco Déniz (Sí Podemos) has shown the “concern” of his group with the “excessive” tourist growth in the Canary Islands that generates a “b-side” of the sector because it “destroys” the heritage and affects the living conditions of citizens. “The distribution of wealth is unfair,” he pointed out.
He has said that now they are “paying for the nonsense” of the development of the 60s, 70s and 80s and stressed that tourism “is a great polluter” for what it is necessary to know about “what is coming” to the archipelago. “Not one more bed”, he has exposed her.
About 15 municipalities that his group has analyzed, he has highlighted that there are 58 million square meters of tourist land to be developed, a “chilling” figure, for which he has asked to reclassify land by law “urgently”, using an additional provision of the land law, and implement a moratorium. “We must stop this nonsense,” he commented.
Déniz has pointed out that “the market does not regulate itself” and intervention must be made and has advanced that the ‘Dreamland’ project in Fuerteventura “is going to stop” through a parliamentary initiative, even from a legal point of view.
Ricardo Fernández (Cs) has criticized the support for tourism and then “obstacles” to its development, in reference to the ‘Cradle of the Soul’ project, and has wondered if the Government of the Canary Islands plans to declassify land and, therefore, face compensation.
He has insisted that “tourism is not bad” and has charged against those who want to “continue milking it with more and more taxes and more management.”
Jesús Ramos (ASG) has recalled the “legal problems” of the past moratoriums and what can happen with an ecotax and has appealed not to take a “same solution” for all the islands since there are different tourism models such as the green islands that “should not be limited”.
NC SEES “UNASUMABLE” TO REACH THE TOURIST CEILING
Luis Campos, spokesman for NC, has commented that it is “unaffordable” that the Canary Islands can exceed 22 million tourists and recalled that a moratorium has already been approved and 450,000 beds have been declassified, including those in Veneguera.
He has said that the task of “tourist requalification” is pending and not to consume more land, influencing to achieve more economic resources without increasing the visit of tourists, at the same time that he has criticized that the vacation rental creates thousands of tourist places “through the door of behind”.
Luz Reverón (PP) has commented that a good part of the accommodation in the Canary Islands is “obsolete” and public areas “degraded” and opposed the “demonization” of tourism when the objective of the administrations should be to build public housing.
Beatriz Calzada (CC-PNC) has indicated that no one disputed the declassification of some soils in the guidelines but they entail “long and costly” judicial procedures that end in compensation.
He has also pointed out that it is the councils who decide the tourist land and believes that it is necessary to update the instruments of the carrying capacity of each island, giving as an example that Gran Canaria has approved its Island Plan with a maximum of 261,000 tourist beds.
Manuel Abrante (PSOE) has asked to “reflect” on the future tourist capacity of the islands because for decades “they have been filled with cement” without paying attention to the low wages of workers and affecting the consumption of resources.
He has claimed tourism “of excellence” to achieve “a better Canary Islands” and to serve as support for a strategy of economic diversification.
