The president of Cehat and Ashotel, Jorge Marichal, slammed the Canarian politicians who are now “keeping a low profile” after the tourist demonstrations last Saturday as he stated that “everyone is to blame” includingpolitical parties for the poor planning in Canarias.
“Infrastructure is not built overnight, stop with the ridiculous announcements and start working,” he stated during a round table discussion at the ‘Futurismo Canarias 2024’ forum where he emphasized that “this is not a tourism issue”.
Marichal expressed regret that those who place tourism at the heart of Canarias’ problems are “misguided” when in his opinion, it is due to population growth and “poor management” of infrastructure in Tenerife, for instance, criticizing the focus on the municipalities of Granadilla and Adeje when it is a widespread issue.
He gave examples that “there are no roads, no homes” or “the planning of general plans is poorly done”, some not even in line with guidelines or when applying for a building permit it takes “three years”.
He expressed support for holiday rental activities but not for its “uncontrolled and unplanned” growth, mentioning that “many people have been evicted from their homes” as rent was previously 400 Euros and has now risen to 1,200.
“People are angry, people can’t make ends meet, no matter how much we raise their salaries, they can’t,” he pointed out.
He reiterated his support for the holiday rental model but as a “classified and planned economic activity”, acquiring land “at tourist land prices” and payouts to employees “as per tourism agreements” while adhering to the same regulations. “Holiday homes, as many as you want,” he emphasised.
He noted that what currently exists in this subsector is “chaos” as it has grown “wildly” in Canarias, something that hoteliers had warned about years ago, that it would become a “social phenomenon,” and yet, still maintaining good occupancy rates in the complexes.
[–>
“Even the Spanish Government has now realized after ten years of the issue we were facing. We are experiencing gentrification, we are facing tourism phobia, and it is not solely because of holiday rentals, it is because of inadequate planning,” he pointed out.
