Viajes Insular, which developed strongly thanks to the tourist heart of the south of Gran Canaria, has celebrated the 60th anniversary of its foundation. The Canarian tour operator put on a brilliant event in Las Palmas for people from Las Palmas: only a few businessmen from the south of the island attended the legendary Gran Canaria company. There were more people from Tenerife than from Maspalomas at the Tenerife-run establishment Hotel Santa Catalina. In the official photo there were also no owners of the company such as the president of Viajes Insular, Juan Andrés Melián, Javier Ramos for the shareholder Parbel Brand, Enrique Salvia, Fernando Otaduy Blanco, for Otasu, SL (the industrial company Tirma de Virgilio Suárez), or Diego Scherschisnki Luca de Tena, linked to health businesses.
The general director of the company, Ignacio Poladura, said at the Hotel Santa Catalina that "to talk about this company, purely Canarian and the only one with a presence in 7 of the 8 islands, is to talk about the history of tourism. In fact, they were born and grown hand in hand. The development of the economic engine of the islands cannot be understood without knowing the history of Viajes Insular" and that it is "an unequivocal and indivisible part of the history of tourism in the Canary Islands. Thanks to Virgilio Suárez Almeida, visionary and creator of the idea (nothing evident at that time), began the history of this company that works every day to be more efficient, agile, sustainable, competitive and always keep the customer at the center of its strategy".
Otaduy Blanco, who is from Madrid, joined the Tirma group for family reasons and, from there, to its subsidiaries. At the moment there is a de-escalation of his positions given that there are discrepancies in his way of monitoring the interests of the owner family and in March 2024 he was dismissed from Otasu. Otasu, according to Atlántico Hoy, is dedicated to the acquisition of real estate securities and is located in the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón, in the Community of Madrid. Tirma is now the second Canarian company in which Otasu SL acts as a director, after Viajes Insular SA, located in the province of Las Palmas. "The reasons for Fernando Otaduy's dismissal are due to personal issues," he said in 2023 Atlántico Hoy.
All this arose thanks to the south of the island but in the official photos there is no presence of authorities from the south of Gran Canaria. Carlos Garrido, president of the Spanish Confederation of Travel Agencies, made special mention of Juan Andrés Melián, one of the founders, whom he defined as “a charismatic person with recognized prestige in the sector, who always fought in favor of associations and "He contributed to the formation of the sectoral unit that CEAV represents today." After Las Palmas Viajes Insular opened in San Agustín and Playa del Inglés, where the headquarters of SeaSide Hotels is currently located, before reaching Viuda de Franco, above the Nilo shopping center.
