Canaries promoted in World Travel Market

[Janet]

L-R; Canarian Tourism Minister Ricardo Fernández de la Puente ; Arona mayor Francisco Niño; Canarian President Paulino Rivero; Tenerife President Carlos Alonso; and Arona tourism councillor Evelin Santos, at the 2013 World Travel Market in London.





The World Travel Market is currently taking place in London, and of course the Canaries has a major presence there. This year's fair, however, has not been without controversy - or irony. First, to launch the event, Paulino Rivero announced "a billion Euro provision" to help tourism renovation, a key facet of the new tourism legislation, but the President of the Canaries soon found himself once again under a shower of criticism for suggesting that the Government was providing the money whereas, in fact, it is credit being made available by the banks for hotel and touristic apartment complex regeneration.

Secondly, the presence of Arona mayor Francisco Niño has raised several eyebrows. Mayor Niño is there, presumably at public expense, in addition to the actual councillor for tourism who is there to promote Arona's beaches and environment. Beaches, that is, which have neither lifeguard nor sunbeds, and which have lost what blue flags they once had, and an environment that is now in utter confusion because of the declared illegality of the "plan general", itself mired in the corruption of the municipality's officialdom.

Of course the majority of the public who attend the fair will not be aware of any of this, and naturally it is to everyone's benefit in these islands that the Canaries' exhibition is as successful as possible. If only, though, the reality could live up to the image ... JA