The President of Lanzarote’s Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, has defended recent statements she made at the FITUR travel fair, in which she claimed that Lanzarote was “saturated” with tourists.
Corujo, of the Socialist party was criticized last week by Arrecife’s Mayor Astrid Pérez, of the PP, after negative coverage of her statements went viral. Various British publications had reported her speech under misleading headlines which claimed that Lanzarote planned to limit British tourists, or was “fed up” with them. Pérez accused Corujo of “causing international alarm,” and “damaging the image” of Lanzarote
Corujo responded yesterday, saying “The Balearics, the Costa del Sol or Barcelona are always in the news for their attempts to limit the growth of the number of vehicles associated with tourism, to control the arrival of cruise ships or to limit the growth of holiday rentals, and this causes no damage to their reputation in source markets. On the contrary, it is good news for visitors if a destination makes an effort to guarantee its conservation”.
Corujo’s FITUR speech caused controversy after the Canarian Weekly, an English-language newspaper based in Tenerife, reported it under the misleading headline “Lanzarote: we need less British tourists”. Although Corujo had said no such thing, the headline was repeated in various British newspapers, including the Express and the Mail, resulting in hundreds of comments that were hostile to Lanzarote.
Pérez’s clash with Corujo is unlikely to be the last. The two most powerful women on Lanzarote are the most visible representatives of Spain’s two main national political parties, and both of them are standing for re-election in May’s elections.
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