Excelcan separates the salary increase from the 20A protests

The highest representative of Excelcan thus refers to the request of the regional president, who in recent weeks has requested on more than one occasion a salary increase in the tourism sector, in order to have a better distribution of the wealth that generates its activity.

De Armas pointed out that «“He does not share the words” of President Clavijo regarding this matter, which sees “on the margins” of what is the impact of tourist activity. «Here we are talking about the employer and the worker and for that we have our meetings, agreements and thousands of discussions to reach the consensus that we can reach. I don’t see that there is a relationship between one thing and the other.», he clarified.

About whether your sector feels true pressure Given the magnitude that these protests are acquiring, de Armas indicated that it is “important that all citizens analyze, see, comment, know and understand how tourism activity affects each of the Canary Islands.”

Impact of vacation rentals

Regarding how the controversy surrounding vacation rentals influences the rejection of tourism, the president of Excelcan said that “Yes there are really a direct relationship between the demonstration and the situation that the holiday homes have reached” given their deregulation. “It cannot be that everyone who wants, under a responsible declaration, can have a vacation home and that makes them an entrepreneur in the tourism sector.”

He continued by expressing that although everyone deserves “that ease” to carry out an activity, it is essential that everyone follows the same rules that are linked and organized with tourist activity. «It cannot be that hotels have very rigid regulations, which seems fine to me, and vacations have gotten out of hand. It must be regulated and I think it is good that the government recognizes this and that it has intervened with this regulation.

Finally, he argued that It is an activity which is part of the tourism sector that «must be maintained» since it also «gives positive results» to the economy.

Regenerative tourism

For his part, the president of the Círculo de Empresarios de Gran Canaria, Agustín Manrique, valued that the tourism model of the Canary Islands «It does not change, but evolves» and stressed that it must progress towards a «regenerative tourism» model, a concept that he assures large organizations were already working on before the debate on the current tourism model intensified.

Manrique explained that this model affects «not generate negative impacts on the destination» but rather serves to «regenerate society and its different sectors by promoting better distribution of income, spillover of wealth into destination and better governance», all under the consensus of public-private collaboration.