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FRIDAY 21st FEBRUARY TO THURSDAY 5th MARCH 2020
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EDITION 645
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PAGES 41 - 48
“STOP THINKING ABOUT TOURISM AS JUST A MONEY-SPINNER!” Hoteliers say sector deserves much more H
OTELIERS in Tenerife have urged the Canary Government to stop thinking about how much money tourists can generate and NOT to even contemplate introducing a tourist tax. Ashotel, the hotel association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, says attention should focus on new sustainable tourism projects, including cleaner and cheaper energy sources, the reduction of waste and improved recycling. The group’s president, Jorge Marichal says the Canary Government must stop seeing the tourism sector as a mere source of public revenue and share a more global, strategic and future vision of tourism. And he adds: “The implementation of a tourism rate,
badly called the green rate, is a bad idea because it reduces competitiveness to a sector in the Canar y Islands that competes internationally with world tourism powers, such as Turkey and Greece, among others. A tourist rate, in addition, would have a negative impact on the arrival of tourists to the islands as any tax increase directly influences the loss of competitiveness.” “It’s time to use taxation intelligently and tax those who do it wrong and reward those who do it well,” said the Ashotel president.
Sr. Marichal invited the vice president of the Canar y Government and Minister of Finance, Román Rodríguez, to support sustainable tourism initiatives with projects that, for example, contribute to the general implementation of clean and cheaper energy sources in companies or circular economy projects that help reduce waste produced in the sector and improve its recycling, as in Puerto de la Cruz. He encouraged Sr. Rodríguez “to be the bearer of exemplary projects such as the implementation of a pilot photovoltaic generation and self-consumption plant that can nourish a good part of the hotel plant and the tourism sector.”
Mafia gang’s 14 million euro link with Tenerife P OLICE have discovered that a Mafia gang led by an Italian linked to several murders established a major link with Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura where they laundered money by buying properties, cars and boats.
Many of the luxury homes were purchased with illicit money in Arona and Adeje in the south of Tenerife. So far, 38 people have been arrested for having links with the so-called “dellaMagliana band” which operated across Europe. They face charges of illicit gambling, money laundering and extortion. The police operation, codenamed Jackpot, was developed in Spain, Italy and Austria, in a simultaneous performance by the Civil Guard, the Tax Agency, the Italian and Austrian Police. The head of the organisation, now in prison, is associated with several homicides and murders in the 80s and 90s. Two of the detainees were
Jorge Marichal, presidente de Ashotel (www.ashotel.es) “This plant would undoubtedly become a powerful international tourism promotion tool for the Canary Islands, by positioning us as one of the first destinations supplied with clean energy in the world. Let’s also work on concrete projects such as a composting plant to supply ourselves with organic producers or a recycling plant for biofuel oils aimed at aviation or maritime transport,” he said. Tourism in the Canary
Islands contributes 35% of the gross domestic product, contributes about 16,000 million euros a year and accounts for 40% of employment in the islands (343,000 jobs). However, the hotel sector considers that the investment received in return is very low: just 35 million in tourism infrastructure and 19 million for tourism promotion, according to the latest General Budgets of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands.
German tourist discharged after coronavirus diagnosis
T
HE German tourist who was tested positive for coronavirus on La Gomera has been given the all-clear and discharged from hospital.
based in Barcelona and Gran Canaria. A string of properties, 37 in all, and 19 companies with an approximate total value of 14 million euros have been frozen. Numerous vehicles and bank accounts have also been intervened. “This criminal organisation had the control of the gaming sector in Italy through the management and supply of gaming machines, the use of illegal software, as well as online gaming. As a result of
these and other activities, great economic benefits were generated that were used for the granting of credits and loans that were subsequently charged to their victims through extortion,” said a police spokesman. The criminal organisation laundered the money through a complex web of bogus companies, also linked to the gaming sector. Thus they tried to avoid possible controls and the application of measures to
prevent money laundering. The real estate investments in the Canary Islands was “significant”, say the police.
The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands said he gave a negative result for the second time at the island’s Hospital Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe where
he had been kept in isolation.
Continued on page 2