Clavijo “unties his tie” to defend the tourism model in the Canary Islands

 

It is a fact that political communication has changed. Since the emergence of Podemos and the casual political style, where ties and jackets are superfluous and replaced by sweaters and unbuttoned shirts, politicians have made a constant effort to get closer to the “rabble”.

 

Efforts that have often left mixed images on both sides of the political spectrum in the hope of scraping together some votes during the campaign; from Iceta's dancing, Girauta's guitar playing, Ada Colau's musical vein or the performance of the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, in the podcast “The Pija and the Quinqui”trying to attract the young vote by analyzing his nicknames as “Mr. Handsome” or “Perro Sanxe” and claiming that he is a fan of Taylor Swift.

 

Fernando Clavijo did not want to be left behind and at the beginning of 2025 he has set his cabinet in motion in search of renewing and revitalizing his image after a few months in which he has received blows from Madrid on immigration issues and blows from the archipelago on tourism issues with the rise of movements such as "The Canary Islands have a limit."

 

Far from appealing to dancing and singing, Clavijo has chosen to show a relaxed and friendly image by appearing on two of the main podcasts made in the archipelago: “La Impostura” and “Alexis Army”.

 

In them, Clavijo addressed issues such as the REF, the economic model of the archipelago, the profitability of sectors such as agriculture, the situation of La Palma after the volcano, the migration crisis that the archipelago is experiencing and, of course, the tourism sector and its current situation on the islands.

 

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It was precisely to defend this last issue that he had to roll up his sleeves in both podcasts to defend the current tourism model in response to questions from the interviewers. In “The Alexis Army”, Alexis Amaya (CEO of Dormitorum and popular for defending workers’ rights on television and social media) “pressed” the head of the Canary Islands Executive by asking him about the mismatch between record figures in the tourism sector and low wages in the sector; “room prices have gone up, more tourists are coming, staff has not increased significantly either (...)” Amaya commented when addressing the topic of tourism.

 

Clavijo said that hoteliers “are making more money than ever”, although he also stressed that “of the 18 million tourists who come to the archipelago, not all stay in a 5-star hotel” to highlight the uncontrolled rise of holiday rentals on the islands.

 

The president also analysed the current situation of the main issuing markets to the archipelago; “it is clear that Europe is not going through its best moment (...) Germany is showing signs of exhaustion, France is in a monumental mess (...) We thought that Brexit was going to have a greater impact but it has not had one on British tourism” assured Clavijo.

 

The president also took the opportunity to describe as "a disgrace what Aena has done with the Canary Islands airport infrastructures, which are very profitable for the Aena network" in reference to the passport controls that cause daily delays at Tenerife South airport. 

 

In the podcast of “La Impostura”, Clavijo made clear his position in reference to the demonstrations and social mobilizations against the tourism model: “I do not understand it, the tourism model is a successful model (...) we are going to end the year with the arrival of 18 million tourists and it is the main economic engine of the islands, I do not believe that the problem is the model”.

 

However, Clavijo quickly dismissed the issue and focused on the "real problems" of Canarian society, such as the lack of adaptation of infrastructure to the archipelago's demographic growth or the legal insecurity that causes there to be more than 100.000 empty homes in the Canary Islands, as stated by the president.

 

On YouTube, both podcasts have a total of around 5.000 views (although both interviews are available on other platforms such as Spotify) and at a popular level the president does not seem to have come out very well, as some users have commented that “Clavijo does not have the courage to say what he has to say” or that “someone who does not have the slightest idea about anything could give answers with the same rigor as the president of the government”.