The platform for those affected by the tourism law They criticize that tourist interest continues to prevail over the interest of the resident population and demand that there be “a change of mentality that places citizens, and not the territory, in front of the tourist phenomenon.” In this regard, its members lament “the appropriation of collective heritage through the use of the tourist adjective, promoting a distorted approach that subordinates citizens to the visitor.”
The representatives of the platform show their satisfaction with the more than 22,000 signatures presented in Parliament for the Chamber to debate the popular legislative initiative on tourism. «The approach proposed by the bill involves separating the regulation of the phenomenon and tourist activity from urban and territorial planning, which already has its own specific regulations. Tourism as an economic activity must have its rules.
According to the platform, several thousand people “have been left out because they could not be received on time and many resident foreigners have expressed their discomfort at not being able to validly sign on a matter that greatly affects them, even though they can vote to elect mayors and female mayors». The platform initially requested that the term to collect signatures be extended from three to five months but was rejected by the Chamber services since the law establishes a maximum term of three months without the option of extension. Likewise, together with the members of the platform, they attended the Parliament seat in Santa Cruz de Tenerife relatives of the former president of the collective, Blas Padronwho recently passed away.
Those affected by the tourism law demand a simplification of the broad regulations that affect both the regulation and the urban planning of tourist areas: «The successive regulations that have addressed the tourism phenomenon require a simpler and more contained approach to leave behind their hypertrophy and stick it to its strict role that is none other than one more component of the host society and not the only one ».
They also warn that “it is necessary to reformulate the principle of unit of exploitation and legally define the concept of tourist accommodation establishment in the same sense that it has been useful in other autonomous communities, as proposed by the Office of the Ombudsman. This is to be more respectful of the rights at stake since the law must protect them in its entirety”, they maintain, a situation in which they collide with tourism entrepreneurs, who are opposed to consolidating residentialization in tourist areas.
