SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, Héctor Gómez, has appealed this Monday to make an “effort” in public-private collaboration, accompanied by more “political unity”, to relaunch and modernize the Canary Islands as a tourist destination.
In statements to journalists after meeting with a delegation of businessmen from the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Chamber of Commerce, he indicated that it is necessary to counteract the growth of “new markets” that are “very competitive” and in this sense, he has confirmed the ” will” of the island business fabric to promote this change.
He has also detailed that the “priorities” for the Canary Islands in the coming years go through the “opportunities” that are opening up regarding the European Green Pact, the European funds of the resilience mechanism or new lines of reindustrialization.
Gómez has also recognized the “maturity” of the Tenerife business fabric, something that it “has demonstrated” during the pandemic and to face the economic “difficulties” derived from the invasion of Ukraine.
Thus, he has valued the “extraordinary indicators” that the archipelago presents in tourism since it is the second autonomous community that “grows the most” only behind Catalonia and predicts very good figures for the next semester in destination spending –it is already 20% more than in 2019– and in number of tourists.
The president of the Chamber, Santiago Sesé, has said that the meeting has been “very fruitful” because it has allowed them to tell their needs first-hand with the advantage that the minister, being from Tenerife, has a high “knowledge” of the reality of the island and the archipelago. “You have to value it,” he commented.
Sesé pointed out that they have talked about infrastructure, the possibility of building the port of Fonsalía, the expediting of European funds, the reform of the Tenerife South airport, the regulation of vacation rentals or compensation for the transport of goods.
He has indicated that all the issues are “urgent” although he has not hidden that the “priority” is employment given that in some sectors there are “difficulties” in finding workers in an autonomous community with 19% unemployment.
