The president of the Las Palmas hotel association, José María Mañaricua, who has hotel complexes in Mogán as is the case with the vice president of the FEHT, Águeda Borges, a lawyer for RIU Hotels, rejected this Thursday the idea of the Mogán City Council of creating an ecotax to raise nearly 2 million euros per year in a municipal framework that has a budget of 2024 million euros in 51,2. Businessmen do not say it for fear of reprisals but Mayor Onalia Bueno's announcement, given the low expected income, does not make sense.
The Canary Islands tourism sector strongly opposes the green tax that is intended to be imposed on air connections that have the archipelago as their origin or destination. He considers that the polluting effect of flights "must be compensated in the Canary Islands with other measures." Businessmen fear that those who oppose Mogán's ecotax will suffer more rigorous control and excessive zeal over their tourist facilities.
The main employers' associations, Ashotel, FEHT, Asofuer and FTL, show their agreement with any measure that contributes to stopping global warming, but agree that the islands should be exempt from any regulation. They allege that it is an Outermost Region (OR) of the EU and that it is "absolutely dependent on air transport to connect people with Europe."
Furthermore, its high dependence on tourism means that any measure that affects air connectivity causes enormous social drama. "It will have a deterrent effect and will be an impediment for the majority of tourists who year after year choose the Canary Islands as their favorite vacation spot, condemning the economy to collapse and, with it, economic emigration."
Likewise, given the comments that claim that the effect of the rate could mean a "substitution" effect of cheap tourists by others with greater purchasing power, the employers assure that this is a fallacy. "The Canary Islands, as a destination, works with the European middle class, not with the wealthiest classes, and it is this diversity of the Archipelago's offering that makes this community a leading destination."
With all this, they appeal to the social sensitivity of the European Parliament to recognize the uniqueness of the Canary Islands case and tolerate the exception of the kerosene tax on all flights originating from or destined for the archipelagos of the ORs. At the same time, they demand courage from Canarian public representatives in defending this just exception.
