On the European tourism chessboard, southern Gran Canaria presents a medieval and operational anomaly. While global transport markets have succumbed to the efficiency of shared mobility platforms, the island's economic engine—the taxi sector in San Bartolomé de Tirajana—operates under a structure more reminiscent of a medieval guild than a 21st-century industry. This machine, which generates €18 million annually, is now facing its greatest reputational crisis following a systematic fraud scandal. The same politicians in Gran Canaria who reject the arrival of Uber or Cabify then use these platforms when in the EU on official business trips to promote tourism.
In the Canary Islands, we have the euro and even USB-C smartphone chargers, but adapting to the EU's private transport regulations is impossible. The taxi lobby in southern Gran Canaria is increasingly being told about the need to address this issue, and they are threatening protests against a political class in Las Palmas that is incapable of breaking Salcai's monopoly and implementing its protectionist scheme in the taxi sector, creating a bottleneck that undermines the island's image of modernity. While the Island Council and the cooperatives maintain their staunch defense of the current model, citizens and international investors view with suspicion an island that seems to resist the liberalization that is already the norm in the rest of the continent.
The recent police investigation that has scrutinized 11 taxi drivers for defrauding tourists by falsifying fares is, for many analysts, not an isolated incident, but rather a symptom of a system lacking competition. According to the investigation, the drivers took advantage of tourists' lack of knowledge to manipulate service costs, damaging the image of a destination that competes to attract high-spending travelers.
The stagnation in southern Gran Canaria stands in stark contrast to the growth in southern Tenerife. Since July 2023, platforms like Uber have been operating successfully in Adeje and Arona, managing a fleet that now exceeds 80 licenses. According to Dolores Vilas, Uber's director in Spain, user interest is massive: more than one million people opened the app in the country in 2024, with organic search traffic from Gran Canaria demonstrating unmet demand.
The Gran Canaria Island Council maintains a stance of resistance. Faced with a flood of 4.400 applications for VTC (private hire vehicle) licenses, the island government has called the figure "absurd," citing Canary Islands Law 13/2007, which limits the ratio to one VTC for every 30 taxis. This legal framework has already been declared by the Court of Justice of the EU to be contrary to European law, as it finds no justifications of general interest to support such a restriction on the freedom of establishment.
The taxi sector justifies its exclusivity by citing unsustainable operating costs—rising insurance and fuel prices—compared to fares that are among the lowest in Spain. This financial constraint prevents the hiring of second drivers, leaving the fleet in the hands of self-employed owners who typically finish their shifts before nighttime activity begins. The result is a mobility desert on weekends and nights, precisely when the leisure economy needs it most.
Despite modernization efforts through platforms like Pidetaxi and Socomtaxi (of which Maspalomas taxi drivers are shareholders) at Gran Canaria Airport, users perceive the service as outdated. The "friction" at the airport, where more than 12.000 transfer trips were canceled last year, underscores a system bogged down in bureaucracy and rife with suspicions of unlicensed operators. For tourists accustomed to price transparency and the immediacy of ride-hailing services, Gran Canaria remains a destination where transportation is an obstacle, not a service.
