Legal excursion companies can’t anymore. So far this month, its turnover has fallen 50% compared to the last period in which the Administration did something against the unfair competition suffered by entities that occupy public roads to carry out the same activity, the tourist brokeragewithout having the conditions to do so.
The difference between one and the other is abysmal.
The former have premises for which they pay up to 4,000 euros per month, since these are located in the busiest spaces in the municipalities of Arona and from Adeje. They register their employees, who reach a hundred, and pay taxes for their activity, without taking into account the working conditions of the staff, which are those that, by law, correspond to them.
Faced with this, they have seen how, since the pandemic restrictions ended, kiosks located in the best spaces have emerged, occupying public roads without permission, without paying rent and without the tourist intermediation license granted by the Government of the Canary Islands. .
First there was one and then they have been appearing like mushrooms until reaching the current eight, five in Arona and three in Adeje, in crowded areas full of young tourists looking for activities to do during their vacations. That is why this period is so important for these companies: “Our season is five months a year, between May and October, which is when the youngest arrive. We are precisely in that season, and we feel unprotected”.
This is how the recently created Association of Tourist Intermediation Companies of Tenerife (Adeturi) explains it, which includes 21 legal companies with one hundred employees in 42 premises.
In May of this year, the then Arona government group acted and succeeded in expelling twelve of these companies from the main thoroughfares of Playa de las Américas and Los Cristianos, such as the old Metropolis, around Calle Arenas Blancas. Since then, they have re-emerged and performed.
“To us -he assures- the Local Police calls our attention because of a sign on the street, but they don’t say anything to them. The worst thing is that now they argue that they are tourist information points and, if they are fined 3,000 euros, they don’t care, because that’s what they invoice in two or three days,” insists the association, which ensures that “we are considering denounce this inaction, both from the Arona City Council and from the Local Police. We are talking about kiosks in the middle of a public space, open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., without paying anything and offering prices that cannot be competed against”.
