Entrepreneurs in the LGBT business sector have had a problem since this month of October. One of the great defenders of this business model has left due to the impact it had on the apartments linked to the FEHT. The departure of Tom Smulders due to exhaustion has made a canary return to a key position in the Las Palmas hotel association and the first front he has is the pink lobby, which is pulling strings ahead of the events in May 2024. In 2022 Smulders targeted 25.000 or 30.000 visitors to Pride in May, spending around 50 million euros, which horrified businessmen and the tax agencies themselves in Las Palmas.
The threat of taking LGBT tourism away from Yumbo has begun to take its first steps this October. The authorities do not want trouble with this group because they believe that it generates votes and that it has the historical support of the PSOE, but things are getting out of hand. Entrepreneurs in the hotel sector have already given the first warning signals because, in view of the need for renovations that their premises require in terms of ventilation, they have taken to the surrounding streets, causing discomfort with neighbors and the hotel industry.
In the tourism business and pink lobby in the south of Gran Canaria there are two signs. On the one hand, those that are linked to long-standing social movements in the south of the island and, on the other, European groups that, legally, are non-profit entities created by producers of events such as those held every spring. That is to say: they self-contract services. The officials have begun to receive pressure and the City Council of San Bartolomé de Tirajana has urged that the rule be complied with and to warn as soon as there is an irregular procedure to go to court and claim precautionary measures.
