The building that houses the Magma Arte y Congresos, in Costa Adeje, is an architectural jewel that was inaugurated by the Kings of Spain in November 2005. With its construction, which cost 30 million euros, the aim was to provide Tenerife with facilities for that the tourism sector would gain competitiveness, deepening the MICE tourism segment (fundamentally, business, incentive, corporate and conference trips).
However, if used incorrectly, its exploitation model could generate serious problems that, according to associations, companies, experts and institutions consulted by this newspaper, materialized from 2015 or 2016, so that this palace has been in operation for at least seven years. paralyzed” for what it was conceived. Not in terms of events such as parties and concerts and even “vaccinodrome”. Here the COVID-19 vaccine was inoculated to a good part of the population in the southern region of the Island.
It so happens that the exploitation model is an administrative concession by which its exploitation is granted by the Canary Islands Congress Bureau Tenerife Sur (CCB Tenerife), dependent on the Government of the Canary Islands, with a “reverse fee”: if the company that manages – in this case Blue Marketing Events SLU – declares audited losses, it can receive up to 227,000 euros in each year. You would also have to contribute part of the profits, if any.
Received public money in 2020
The first occurred in 2020, when 120,000 euros of public funds were granted as “economic collaboration” for the closure due to the pandemic, as confirmed to DIARIO DE AVISOS by the Ministry of Tourism. The contract formalized in 2014 – for 20 years – between Canarias Congress Bureau Tenerife Sur and Blue Marketing Events SLU contemplates that the economic cooperation “would be accrued only in the case of the latter proving to obtain losses (…). So far, it has not proven the receipt of losses in the audit reports it has submitted for the years 2014-2018 (…). CCB Tenerife has not made payments except for 120,000 euros in 2020,” stated this regional department, which did not provide more data about the years after 2018, except for that data from 2020.
The reality is that companies in the sector, the associations that bring them together, and even public organizations and officials have held meetings in recent years with regional officials of the Government of the Canary Islands to complain, not about this model, but about the management itself. , considering that it was harming the South as a destination, only achieving “the affirmation that they understood the situation and then putting the matter under the rug,” explained yesterday a manager of the agencies that operate the MICE segment in the Canary Islands.
No high-level event since 2015
“We have not offered Magma again since our last experience in 2017,” says Marcos Albornoz, director of the TenTravel DMC agency. “It is an issue that I have been protesting for years. There is a wonderful conference palace in Tenerife, which cost thirty million euros, but it has practically no management. Where is that return for the taxpayer? ”He asks.
Along the same lines, Mauricio Alemán, president of the Canarian Association of the MICE Industry, assures that “it has been talked about in the association. Most agents no longer work with Magma. They do not offer it to their clients and, if you insist, we invite you to contact the company directly,” he emphasizes, while explaining that “it is being used for parties and concerts.” “It’s a shame because in Tenerife there is only Magma and the Government of the Canary Islands knows the situation,” he adds.
For his part, the director of TenTravel recalls that “it must be taken into account that Santa Cruz has infrastructure, but not the accommodation plant. It is in the South where there is accommodation with capacity and level and where the airport where international flights arrive is.
Experts familiar with the industry affirm that the last major conference at Magma was in 2015, “the International Golf Travel Market.”
Albornoz, for his part, assures that “the problems arose in 2016, at the congress of a company in the United States, when they did not want to present essential documentation to us, such as civil liability insurance, and the air conditioning did not work. We had to discount it from the client and it made us feel very bad.”
“The final one was with a company from the United Kingdom to whom we presented a closed budget and the Magma management company, days before, asked us for a higher cost,” he recalls.
