The south of Gran Canaria has just launched its latest responsible tourism proposal: Soy Canary Green, a project promoted by the Association of Tourist Municipalities of the Canary Islands (AMTC) in collaboration with Telefónica. It promises to transform travelers into conscious consumers, reward local businesses with sustainability certifications, and connect everything through an app with geolocation and rewards for good practices. It sounds impeccable on paper, but reality points to something else: a "woke" tourism that is a showcase, more concerned with its institutional image than with the difficulties faced by local businesses.
The project's ambassadors, from barbers to hoteliers, are presented as examples of "conscious" entrepreneurship—literally, and linked to local identity. However, the vast majority of SMEs continue to grapple with very specific problems: skyrocketing energy costs, water shortages, tax pressure, and competition from large tourism chains. No matter how attractive the workshops, coffees with experts, or sustainability awards may be, no app or training session can solve the daily survival of those who sustain the economy of the south.
The project is marketed as a bridge between citizens, the tourism sector, and conscious visitors, but in reality it offers a facade of modernity and good intentions. Sustainability, here transformed into a corporate branding game, ignores the underlying problems: insufficient infrastructure, outdated territorial planning, and a lack of real incentives for tourism to generate wealth in a balanced way. What is promoted as transformative change could end up as a simple catalog of good practices that only works for social media and press releases. This project is within the purview of the AMTC, which comprises fourteen municipalities: Adeje, Arona, Guía de Isora, Mogán, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Pájara, Puerto de la Cruz, Santiago del Teide, Antigua, La Oliva, Tías, Teguise, Yaiza, and San Miguel de Abona.
