The Tenerife tourism sector accepts the challenge of modernizing to adapt to present and future demands as to digitalization and sustainability. The main Canarian industry will not be alone in this process, since the Tenerife Council will launch a program to promote the digitalization of tourist infrastructure, improving the services offered, for example, in the island’s ports and airports. This was announced yesterday by Lope Afonso, vice president and advisor of Tourism of the Cabildo de Tenerifeduring the forum The transformation and evolution of tourism in Canary Islands organized by The day, head of Prensa Ibérica in Tenerife. The event has had the collaboration of the Association of Tourist Municipalities of the Canary Islands, the Arona City Council and the Canary Islands Tourism Innovation Cluster.
«It is time to help municipalities increase the quality of public spaces», explained Afonso. The Cabildo’s intention is that the tourist, from the moment he arrives at the airport, has at his disposal, through his mobile phone, an entire portfolio of services that serves as a guide to enjoy Tenerife in an improved way. In turn, the tourist’s navigation data “will allow us to know more about his behavior, anticipate his desires and know what he thinks of the Island when the visit has concluded,” said Afonso.
Just at a time of tourist splendor, the Canarian institutions are considering what the way forward for the sector should be and how the development of new technologies affects it. José Manuel Sanabria, Vice Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, was in charge of carrying out the institutional opening of the event, in which he put on the table the need to face the arrival of chatbots – robots capable of resolving tourists’ doubts and personalizing their travel experience. Also the appearance of the Internet of Things and virtual, augmented and mixed reality will change the way in which the user obtains information.
On the other hand, the commitment to sustainability has become another of the great challenges of tourism. The Ministry believes that the sector must “develop in harmony with nature”, which implies “looking at the territory and the coast in a new way.” In this sense, Sanabria assured that the Ministry of Tourism “will put all the necessary resources to achieve digital transformation and also to be more sustainable.
After the institutional opening, the round table took place with the presence of Lope Afonso, vice president of the Cabildo de Tenerife and Minister of Tourism; Javier Cabrera, president of the Círculo de Empresarios del Sur de Tenerife (CEST); Dácil León, second deputy mayor and Councilor for Tourism of Arona; Manuel Luis Méndez, Councilor for the Presidency and Territorial Planning of Adeje; and Raúl Domínguez, president of the Canary Islands Tourism Innovation Cluster, Turisfera.
Point
The tourism sector was hit hard by the pandemic, with the closure of hotels and, subsequently, capacity limitations. Now, in addition, hoteliers are suffering from the price crisis. But all this has not been able to prevent “the numbers” from now pointing to “recovery.” A recovery that, in the words of Raúl Domínguez, is due to the fact that “the consumer has given a new and better position to leisure in his pyramid of priorities.”
While the business side has been able to withstand the attacks, the Administration “has not done its job well” in recent years, in the opinion of Dácil León, who believes that this is because “it is very difficult for an institution to advance when there are so many obstacles when launching projects. Furthermore, León considers that the administrations “have not known how to anticipate the problems”, especially in the case of Arona, which has “the highest levels of tourists but there is a lot of work to do to improve public services.”
This feeling of bureaucratic slowness was also shared by Manuel Luis Méndez, who gave the example of Adeje: «The municipality took the initiative last year to modify its General Plan and, although it is a great step, we are afraid of being limited in the time to advance in its development. Even so, he considers that his municipality has been “quite agile” and that this is demonstrated by the fact that hotels have continued to be built in recent years, betting on five-star or great luxury accommodations.
The commitment to quality, with five-star and great luxury hotels, is key to the success of the sector
One of the issues that most worries tourism entrepreneurs is the increase in costs. Javier Cabrera pointed out that this situation “damages profitability” and “compromises the viability of many companies”, which is why he asks “not to be intoxicated” by the growth data shown by the sector and to remain attentive to setbacks.
That tourism is being able to face threats such as the pandemic or inflation is for Lope Afonso evidence of “the robustness of the sector.”
Furthermore, Afonso believes that the resilience of the first Canarian industry demonstrates “to those who once said that tourism contributed little value to the economy of the Islands” that, in reality, “the sector is the one that creates the most wealth.”
Where are we going
The future of tourism depends on the promotion of digitalization. Without it, it is impossible to expand. Domínguez criticizes that the Canary Islands were left behind digital tools that are successful in the sector – such as Booking or Airbnb – “We must ask ourselves why there are no island companies that are technological references in this field.” To innovate in this sense, he asked to have talent trained in the Islands.
The Canary Islands are in danger of “accommodating” and ignoring the steps they must take towards digitalization. “Although tourists are going to continue coming, according to forecasts, we cannot rest on our laurels,” warns León. The problem that must be resolved in this sense is the reality that the work in the transformation is “slower” when it is carried out from the public administrations.
Tourism advance must be hand in hand with sustainability. For this reason, Méndez points out that “we will have to work on more efficient management of spaces and services.” And he asks not to ignore the big problems such as chaos in mobility or lack of staff: «We know that there are hotels that have had to close their restaurants because they could not find workers. Adeje has 2,126 unemployed, which is almost the full employment with an unemployment rate of less than 7%. “We have to study where we are going to get more workers.”
The gap between academic training and labor demand is also worrying. Cabrera speaks of “imbalance” and asks the Administration to act as “glue” between education managers and private companies when determining what the needs of the sector are.
In fact, after so many years of the Canary Islands positioning itself as a tourism leader, these weaknesses such as the lack of labor or adequate qualifications represent opportunities for competitors. Given this, Lope Afonso warns: «We are scrutinized and our shortcomings are known. “We can’t let them take advantage of them.”
Current threats
Infrastructure problems already affect the tourism sector. This is something visible in mobility, but also in housing. In the case of workers who cannot find a place to stay, Domínguez calls for putting a stop to vacation rentals, to which he also attributes part of the birth of tourismphobia: “It’s time to regulate. Although I, as an architect, wonder if that was not already delimited in the uses of the land.
Correcting the housing problem, however, is not an easy task for administrations. León recognizes that limitations in budgets and tenders “prevent us from being efficient.” And he adds to the housing crisis the lack of security and cleanliness in the streets, which are pending tasks in Arona: «We need to solve these problems to give the citizens services that are up to par.
Hoteliers believe that regulating vacation rentals would reduce homelessness and tourismphobia
In the case of Adeje, Méndez assures that there is no land available to build public housing. The process to change this situation is “long-term”, and “partial modifications have been used to try to speed up the processes.” In total, it expects to take four years to start building the first public apartments.
Cabrera considers that among the bureaucratic obstacles are the environmental impact declarations and that, furthermore, having them approved for one year does not mean that they cannot expire, which means delays in the projects.
In the case of road infrastructure, Afonso believes that the situation can only be “mitigated,” because the real solutions are “long-term.”
