New Canarian tourism law approved and published

[Janet]

The new tourism law has now been approved, and published. HERE is the new law; HERE is the process it has gone through. JA

[El Profesor]

HERE is the new law;

You couldn't translate that into English could you?
And tell us what forms we need ..........

[Janet]

yes of course, gimme 5 ...   

[Janet]

The ink is hardly dry on the paper, and I've not yet even had a chance to settle down to look at the clauses in detail, but already the new law is under attack. There are the usual interest groups seeing the legislation wrongheaded in almost every way from favouritism for Tenerife province over that of Las Palmas, to restrictive practices, violations of EU law, etc. The debate on this will rumble on and on, I suspect, and some argue that the law will hardly last a year before it has to be redrafted.

In my own opinion, the law is indeed clearly restrictive. Whether this is permissible within the terms of the EU seems clear – it is. That at least is the current opinion of many if not most judges here and two previous EU rulings. Whether it's legally valid, though, is for me less of an issue than whether it's effective. It seems to me that the restrictions are still so great, and the focus on hotel accommodation so marked, that the authorities really haven't got the measure of their own market, and are failing significantly in understanding that what really matters is not the Canaries, but what tourists want.

This is the view, too, of Sergio Moreno of the Instituto Universitario de Turismo y Desarrollo Económico Sostenible (Tides). He says that this legislation is based on an important conceptual failure because the government is focusing the debate on the territory rather than the tourists. Sr Moreno argues that the whole controversy about numbers of stars – a detailed debate over whether 4* hotels should be allowed in addition to 5* ones ending in the decision that they were not allowed as newbuilds but allowed as renovation projects – was pretty senseless since it is services offered, rather than number of stars, that is the real indication of quality.

I can do no better than repeat his conclusion: what is important is not the territory itself, but the industry's own adaptation to tourists, and to do this, you have to specialize. You can have a 5* hotel all you like but if it isn't following and adapting to the market of the moment, its stars are of no value whatsoever. JA

[Janet]

 As I said in the last post on 2 June, the new law is under attack. And to give an idea of the type of attack it's under, today the national government minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism, and president of the Canarian PP (conservative party), José Manuel Soria, himself a Canarian, has laid into it in the strongest terms. It's a "fraud" for the tourism sector and the Canaries themselves, he said.

Referring to the eastern province's claims that the Tenerife hotel sector was being favoured over that of Gran Canaria, Sr Soria said that the law wasn't a fraud that shows preference to one part of the Canaries over another, but in a far wider sense it was a fraud in respect of the archipelago as a whole. In terms of the law's very title, which includes the word modernization, he said that there is nothing more opposed to modernization than the establishment of obstacles and restrictions in the tourism sector.

He expressed the opinion, too, that each island, through its Cabildo, should be allowed to determine its own tourism priorities and promotions, "without the "guardianship" of any regional administration. Sr Soria reminded the conference of the regional PP that 2013 was the year in which the Cabildos, democratically elected, celebrated their centenary: what's with the Canarian Government's obsession and mistrust about the powers and jurisdiction of the Cabildos, he asked. Sr Soria closed by asking the Canarian Government to reflect on the enormous damage such anti-competitive laws can do, and insisted that what the islands needed was the best hotels for tourists themselves to decide where they want to stay.

I think many will agree with him, though it should be noted that he himself is still talking in terms of hotels. It should also be borne in mind that there is not the best of historical blood between him and Canarian President Paulino Rivero. None the less, it's good to hear a voice, albeit a Canarian one, speaking from the national seat of power. This is Madrid calling ...

JA