SPANISH tourist resorts should take their lead from British favourite Benidorm instead of trying to cap the number of holidaymakers, a leading expert has claimed.
The Balearic Islands and Lanzarote have been accused of trying to snub ‘budget’ British visitors in search of more ‘upmarket’ holidaymakers in a move away from mass tourism models amid attempts to limit the amount of tourist accommodation.
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Lanzarote’s president Maria Dolores Corujo sought to allay the fears of British holidaymakers earlier this month by insisting: “You are and always will be welcome here”.
But went on to insist the island’s tourist capacity had reached its limit and it had to prioritise a “rational and lasting development based on quality.”
Overnight tourism expert Fernando Gallardo put Benidorm forward as the example to follow and insisted government attempts to stop holidaymakers choosing where they wanted to go for sunshine breaks was “unworkable” and classist.
Mr Gallardo, General Secretary of the Alliance of Hotel Chains which is now one of Spain’s most important hotel groups, said of the Balearic Islands’ attempts to reduce the number of hotel beds in an interview coinciding with eMallorca Experience Week: “I don’t see it as feasible.
“It is an idea that comes from public administrations and we need to listen to the people.
“If tourists want to go on masse to the Balearic Islands, any attempt to limit them will be unviable.
“Are they going to put walls up? I don’t see it.”
He added: “It’s a very feudal, even aristocratic idea, that only the marquis travel to the islands.”
Commending Benidorm, the city with the most skyscrapers in Spain, for the way it has developed, Mr Gallardo added in his interview with Majorcan newspaper Ultima Hora: “We talk about how we want to protect the territory and we need to realise that perhaps the model to follow is that of Benidorm which is undoubtedly the city.
“It is a model of tourist sustainability because it has achieved vertical growth that does not consume so much territory, makes all public services and infrastructures more efficient and allows all the surroundings to be free of construction.
“That’s something that other supposedly more ecological tourism models do not do because in the end they consume more territory.”
He also rejected the idea of tourist saturation espoused by the likes of Lanzarote’s president, saying the world’s population would continue to grow.
He insisted: “They’re subjective questions.
“Pressure is increasing throughout the world but destinations which are supposedly saturated today won’t be in a few years time because of the better technological management of resources.
“And they’ll probably have 10 times more tourists than today.”
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