Could obsolescence drag down Maspalomas?

The truly paradoxical thing is that while the most important organization in the world in travel and tourist services: TUI, distinguishes a dozen hotel establishments in the south of our island among the hundred best in the world, of those who work with them, the set of facilities and common public services, are approaching a situation of almost irreversible obsolescence, with honorable exceptions.

 

 

This situation is perfectly defined in the theory of the Life Cycle of Tourist Destinations by Richard Butler, where in the last cycle (6) which he describes as Stagnation and Decline or Rejuvenation and Recovery, he says that, in the stagnation phase, The tourist destination is beginning to show signs of maturity and visitor levels are beginning to decline. Finally, in the decline phase, the tourist destination loses its attractiveness and visitor levels decrease dramatically.

 

 

Fortunately, we have not yet reached that phase in the destinations of our southern Gran Canaria, since we continue to enjoy significant increases in tourist arrivals and overnight stays which allows us, to a certain extent, to think that we still have time to begin a phase of rejuvenation and recovery.

 

 

I would propose the strategy of preparing a list of public and private actions to unify priority criteria and resource allocation starting with those situations that are enormously harmful to the aesthetics and functionality of the system, such as the improvement and fine-tuning of the main public roads, such as the climb from Campo Internacional to Playa del Inglés and the mamotreto at the end of the slope that is like an urban shame and a monument to mediocrity. Surely there are very qualified professionals to prepare that list that I mentioned above and that would be very effective when it comes to improving the image of our destination.

 

 

As I said at the beginning, we have hotels that are among the best in the world, we have wonderful beaches that are highly valued by our tourists, although the services can clearly be improved, a climate that some very prestigious universities on all continents assure is the best in the world. What are we waiting for to take seriously our situation of neglect and mediocrity in some of our common facilities and begin to remedy the situation before we find ourselves dragged by our laziness to the fate that Richard Butler predicts for destinations that are not recycled: ruin , poverty, unemployment and desolation.

 

Opinion article

Jose Maria Barrientos