La Aldea hopes to attact more tourism

24.01.2010 - According to the La Pro­vincia newspaper, one third of the town’s 3,000 people of working age are out of a job following the closures of major employers, particularly in the tomato sector, whose mainland and European mar­kets have been badly hit by cheaper tomatoes from neighbouring Morocco. 

A local cheese maker has also closed down in recent times, adding to the jobless queue.  The council in La Aldea has set aside land to build a large upmarket hotel and a golf course to attract tourists but a dispute over boundaries with local land­owners has so far delayed the plans. 

“We don’t want to replicate the tourism model of the re­sorts in the south but rather to offer visitors activities that blend in with our rural surroundings,” says mayor Tomás Pérez.

The authorities will have to be very creative in their tourism plans if they are to get around limitations such as the fact that 85 per cent of the land around La Aldea is classified as conservation land.  “It is ironic that we are one of the places with most hours of sunshine in the Canaries and yet have been unable to develop any form of tourism here so far,” added the mayor.



This article appears in the print edition 608 of Island Connections

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