Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
Canary tourism bosses warn against blanket residential reform
Tourism employers’ associations across the Canary Islands have warned that a widespread liberalisation of residential use in tourist establishments would put the future of the islands’ extra-hotel sector at risk, with serious consequences for employment, economic activity, tax revenue and the quality and competitiveness of the destination.
The warning comes from the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism Employers of Las Palmas (FEHT), the Hotel and Extra-Hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro (Ashotel), the Association of Tourism Employers of Fuerteventura (Asofuer) and the Island Association of Hotel and Apartment Employers of Lanzarote (Asolan).
Modernising the rules without losing the tourist model
The business organisations believe it is necessary to address the various situations that have built up over decades in numerous tourist complexes and to adapt the regulations to the new realities of the market and of how tourism is marketed. But they stress that modernising the model and providing legal certainty is one thing, while allowing an indiscriminate liberalisation of uses that would end up blurring the tourist nature of the establishments is quite another.
From this perspective, FEHT, Ashotel, Asofuer and Asolan back the approach being taken by the Canary Islands government’s Department of Tourism and Employment, which in their view seeks to adapt the rules to the current reality while maintaining the conditions needed for tourist establishments to keep operating in an orderly and competitive way.
For the employers’ associations, any reform must preserve one essential principle: the costs, services and obligations required to maintain a quality tourist establishment must continue to be met collectively. The upkeep of communal areas, the renewal of facilities, the services received by visitors and uniform quality standards cannot be left to a progressive fragmentation of interests within each complex.
A debate that goes beyond individual owners
The business organisations warn that, in their view, the debate goes far beyond the interests of individual owners or companies. What is at stake is the survival of a sub-sector that forms an essential part of the Canary Islands’ tourism model and generates thousands of jobs, economic activity and significant revenue for public authorities.
They add that the experience accumulated in the islands’ main tourist areas makes clear what happens when extra-hotel beds are lost. They cite studies by the Institute of Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development (Tides) at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which they say have analysed the economic and employment impact of residentialisation processes.
At the Maspalomas Summer University sessions held in 2024, the loss of turnover linked to the residentialisation of tourist properties in the Canary Islands was put at €3.586 billion a year, along with a €943 million shortfall in tax revenue and 88,000 jobs.
Fragmentation threatens quality and investment
The employers’ associations argue that these figures make it essential to approach any legislative change from the perspective of the general interest. The gradual transformation of tourist beds into homes does not affect only the owner of each property: it reduces the regulated accommodation capacity, undermines the economic viability of the establishments, makes their renovation and maintenance harder and ultimately hits employment, public revenue and the quality of the offer.
They add that the indiscriminate mixing of uses can also lead to growing fragmentation of the complexes. An extra-hotel establishment needs to maintain communal areas, facilities, services and equipment that require permanent investment. If a growing share of its units stops taking an effective part in tourism activity, it becomes increasingly difficult to fund those services and to carry out the investments needed to maintain the quality standards demanded by a competitive destination.
The businesses note that they have raised this link between residentialisation, loss of activity and deterioration of the destination on previous occasions. Studies used by employers and trade unions have likewise highlighted the effect of these processes on public revenue and employment.
Opposition to a general liberalisation of residential use
Against this backdrop, FEHT, Ashotel, Asofuer and Asolan express their opposition to a reform that would in practice mean the general liberalisation of residential uses in tourist establishments. The business organisations consider it legitimate to address the particular situations that exist and to examine specifically the sanction procedures affecting certain owners.
But they warn that the solution to those problems cannot be a legal change that allows residential use to be extended into the future for properties designed to form part of tourist establishments. They make no mention, however, of the opposite phenomenon: the proliferation of holiday homes in residential buildings and neighbourhoods.
Protecting consolidated residential use without opening the floodgates
Tourism businesses therefore insist that the reform must strike a balance between legitimate individual rights and the defence of a collective interest that, they say, affects the whole of the Canary Islands. The extra-hotel sector forms an essential part of the islands’ tourism history, of their fabric of small and medium-sized enterprises and of an offer that has helped generate wealth and employment for decades.
They also point out that owners who can prove that their tourist properties were used for residential purposes before 1 January 2017 may keep that use under the terms established by law. They therefore believe there is enough scope to recognise and protect consolidated residential situations without opening the door to new properties designed for tourist accommodation progressively abandoning that activity.
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