Lanzarote’s president heaps praise on German tourists as the island looks to attract ‘higher-quality’ holidaymakers and rely less on Brits
Lanzarote’s president has heaped praise on Germans as the holiday island tries to reduce its dependence on British tourists.
María Dolores Corujo said the German market conformed to its intentions to aim at ‘higher-quality’ tourism in an apparent slight on UK holidaymakers.
She said: ‘It’s essential to work on the diversification of the sector and the growth of markets like the German market, which adapt to our intentions of aiming at higher-quality tourism and holidaymakers who spend more when they’re here and moves us away from mass tourism.’
She made her comments as a Lanzarote Council delegation promoted the island at this week’s Berlin Tourism Fair, which started on Monday.
Delegation leaders said they were planning to hold more than 25 meetings with Germany’s main tour operators, airline and airport chiefs.
Tourists relax on a beach in Puerto del Carmen on Lanzarote, Canary Islands, in 1989
Lanzarote’s president sparked controversy last month when she declared the Canary island was saturated and wanted to change its approach to tourism.
She said the stance would mean aspiring to receive fewer visitors ‘with greater spending in the destination.’
Around half of all the tourists who visit Lanzarote are British and Ms Corujo has pinned the island’s future tourism strategy on one of ‘diversification to reduce the dependence on the British market’ and welcome more ‘upmarket’ holidaymakers.
Lanzarote, dubbed ‘Lanzagrotty’ in the past, is expected to focus its efforts on targeting more French, Italian, Dutch and German visitors as well as Spanish tourists from the mainland.
The director of the Spanish Tourist Office in the United Kingdom has reacted by insisting the country would not ‘discriminate by type of visitor.’
He said that while Spain’s ‘travel industries need to work together to address the challenges of mass tourism’, the country’s main focus was on ‘becoming a more sustainable and competitive tourism destination.’
Hotel chiefs in Lanzarote have insisted it is ‘unwise’ to talk of tourist saturation.
Francisco Martinez, vice-president of Lanzarote’s Island Association of Hotels and Apartments, said political leaders were opening an unnecessary debate and being ‘badly advised’.’
President Dolores Corujo is a Spanish politician and a member of the centre-left PSOE party of Spain.
She has been the General Secretary of the PSOE of Lanzarote since 2012.
She became the president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote in June 2019.
She has made big steps towards reforming the island economy and paying off historic debts.
Lanzarote is dependent on tourism and hit hard by seasonal variation as well as being affected by events such as the pandemic.
Diversifying the economy is a permanent priority for the island.
María Dolores Corujo plans to reshape Lanzarote’s economy after it suffered in the pandemic
Spain’s famous Balearic Islands to the east of the peninsula have also looked to reduce dependence on British tourists in recent years.
MailOnline reported at the end of February that locals were struggling to afford rent or buy properties amid increasing prices that have been driven by a shift towards upscale tourists who can afford more expensive properties.
‘People are now looking at how to survive,’ Rona Pineda, 32, who shares a two-bedroom apartment with a couple in Mallorca, told Bloomberg.
‘If you have a normal salary, it’s very difficult to find a place to live nowadays.’