Gran Canaria: quality tourism is already a reality

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Quality tourism is already a reality in Gran Canaria

When people talk about tourism, it is common to hear that we must commit to quality tourism. But what does quality tourism actually mean? And, above all, can Gran Canaria really be described as a quality tourism destination? The answer should not be built solely on arrival statistics, hotel star ratings or average room prices. There is another indicator that may be less visible, but which says a great deal about the position the island has achieved in the international tourism market: the awards won by its accommodation establishments.

International awards across a diverse range of establishments

The list is extensive and, above all, diverse. Grand Hotel Residencia, Santa Catalina, Anfi del Mar, Salobre Hotel Resort, Cordial Mogán Playa, Seaside Palm Beach, Santa Mónica Suites, Bohemia Suites, the large Lopesan and Riu resorts, among many others, have received awards and distinctions over the years from organisations, tour operators and international publications: TUI Holly, TUI Global Hotel Awards, World Luxury Hotel Awards, World Travel Awards, RCI Gold Crown, Tripadvisor, HolidayCheck, British Airways, Jet2, World Golf Awards, the MICHELIN Guide and Repsol Soles.

Not all awards mean the same thing or use the same criteria. But the accumulation of recognition from different organisations reveals a reality that is difficult to ignore: Gran Canaria has an accommodation offering capable of competing at the very highest international level.

The evolution of the TUI awards

There is also a significant detail in the evolution of the TUI awards. For years, the TUI Holly was one of the most prestigious accolades for tourism establishments, based on ratings from TUI customers, particularly those from German-speaking markets. With the company’s globalisation, TUI replaced this system with the TUI Global Hotel Awards, which incorporate ratings from its customers across different international markets. The pool of ratings is now far broader and more demanding, and the recognition has a truly global dimension.

A diverse offering, from luxury to timeshare

Among other examples, the Grand Hotel Residencia represents luxury; Santa Catalina brings history, heritage and culture; Salobre incorporates golf and wellness; and Anfi del Mar represents the international dimension of timeshare. Santa Mónica Suites demonstrates the capacity for renewal of non-hotel accommodation. The large Lopesan, Riu, Seaside and Gloria Palace complexes embody different models of holiday resort.

In other words, when we talk about tourism quality in Gran Canaria, we are not referring exclusively to the star ratings of its hotels — something we notice when we visit a four-star property in other cities and compare it with our local experience. There is a hotel and non-hotel offering of great quality, made up of different products, aimed at different audiences and capable of earning recognition in highly competitive international markets.

Beyond the sun and beach image

That is particularly significant for an island whose external image has so often been built around a seemingly simple idea: sun and beach. But behind that image lies a far more complex reality that makes Gran Canaria a diverse destination, internationally recognised for luxury, urban, golf, wellness and heritage tourism, as well as for residential tourism, timeshare, large resorts, apartments and suites.

Quality, therefore, is not an exception in our destination. It is one of the components of its offering. And perhaps that is why it is worth revisiting an assertion that is repeated far too often: that Gran Canaria needs to commit to quality tourism. The awards won by its accommodation offering indicate that this quality is already part of the destination’s reality. The challenge is not so much to invent it as to preserve it, improve it and extend it across the whole tourism experience.

Quality tourism versus mass tourism: a dangerous simplification

Talking about quality tourism as opposed to mass tourism can lead to a dangerous oversimplification. A destination can commit to improving the quality of its tourism product while, at the same time, experiencing processes of massification that test the carrying capacity of its territory.

Gran Canaria is home to some of the best tourism establishments in Europe and, simultaneously, faces growing pressure on certain areas, landscapes, roads, beaches, tourist resorts and services. Added to this tourism pressure is the enormous population growth the island has experienced in recent decades, which places new demands on the territory and its infrastructure.

The tourist buys more than a hotel room

And there the idea reappears that we must commit to quality as part of the appeal. Because tourists do not buy only a hotel room. They also dream of a landscape, a particular urban scale, enjoying a beach, a promenade, a village, a mountain, a ravine or a natural space. Increasingly, they demand a destination committed to social, environmental, economic, cultural, territorial and governance sustainability. They buy an experience that sets it apart from other destinations.

The quality of the accommodation may be extraordinary, but the tourism experience does not end at the door of the establishment. A hotel can offer impeccable service, extraordinary architecture, first-class gastronomy and a luxury experience. But if visitors find saturated beaches, traffic, congestion, pressure on natural spaces or excessive transformation of the landscape, the overall experience of the destination may be affected.

That is why territorial excellence is also necessary: a quality destination must be able to conserve its landscapes, protect its natural resources, maintain attractive public spaces, guarantee adequate mobility, preserve its identity and prevent pressure on the territory from ultimately damaging both the visitor experience and the daily lives of those who live there.

Gran Canaria’s natural and cultural credentials

Nor are we starting from scratch in this respect. Gran Canaria is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, is home to the Cultural Landscape of Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and holds Starlight certification for the quality of its skies. A very significant part of its land and maritime territory also forms part of the European Union’s Natura 2000 network.

Alongside these recognitions are initiatives that could further enhance the international standing of its natural and geological values in the future, such as the processing of the Guguy National Park and the Geopark proposal linked to the cone sheet of the Caldera de Tejeda.

Infrastructure and services also shape quality

And there are other elements that form part of a destination’s quality, even though they rarely appear in tourism award lists: first-class airport infrastructure, safety and benchmark healthcare facilities, as well as a broad network of public and private services. An island capable of achieving energy, water and food sovereignty. All of this forms part of the tourism experience.

That is why the real tourism competition of the future will not lie solely in who has the best hotels. It will also lie in who manages to best conserve what cannot be manufactured: the landscape, identity, human scale and authenticity.

25 establishments that tell the island’s tourism story

The 25 establishments included in the list I have compiled for this article do not constitute a ranking, nor do they aim to establish which are the best hotels in Gran Canaria. They are a sample of the diversity and capacity of the island’s accommodation offering to earn international recognition. Some have been accumulating awards for decades; others belong to more recent generations of establishments, but together they tell part of Gran Canaria’s tourism story.

A story that includes historic and urban hotels, luxury establishments, large resorts, apartments, suites, holiday complexes, golf, wellness and timeshare. A story that unfolds in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Maspalomas, Meloneras, Playa del Inglés, Mogán, Puerto Rico, Amadores and other tourist areas of the island. And all of them have something in common: they compete on quality in an extraordinarily demanding international market.

How much can a quality destination grow?

That is why perhaps the real tourism debate in Gran Canaria should not be framed in terms of tourism versus no tourism, nor even mass tourism versus quality tourism. The question is another one: how much can a quality destination grow before it begins to lose the very characteristics that sustain that quality?

Gran Canaria holds a privileged position. It has an internationally recognised accommodation offering, an extraordinary diversity of products, a tourism experience built up over more than a century and a territory that treasures international recognition for its natural, cultural, landscape and astronomical values. But the challenge is no longer simply to attract more visitors. It is to ensure that growth does not end up becoming a threat to the destination itself.

Because the true tourism luxury of the future may not be a bigger room, a more sophisticated pool or a hotel with more stars. It may be something as simple — and at the same time as difficult — as finding a Gran Canaria that remains recognisable. A Gran Canaria capable of offering excellence without losing its charm; modernity without erasing its identity; growth without sacrificing its landscape.

Preserving quality is the real challenge

Perhaps those who continue to say that Gran Canaria needs to become a quality destination are confusing the objective. Quality is not a promise for the future: it is already part of the destination’s reality. The real challenge is to preserve it.

Because awards can recognise the quality of an establishment, and international declarations can highlight the attributes of a territory. But it will be those very attributes — the landscape, heritage, nature, identity, services and the ability to offer a differential experience — that will ultimately determine whether Gran Canaria can remain a quality destination.

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