Together with twelve students of the master program ”Tourism and Regional Planning: Management & Geography”, Prof. Dr. Harald Pechlaner and M. Sc. Christian Eckert recently carried out a practical research project on the Canary Island of Lanzarote. The contact for this project was initiated by Carl Lang, a native of Eichstaett, who has been living in the Canary Islands for many years and who has helped with the project-organization. The overarching thematic framework for the project was formed by the current discussions about a so-called overtourism, which can be understood as a perceived "too much" in tourism. The peculiarity of Lanzarote lies in the fact that already several decades ago, internationally renowned artist César Manrique advocated an “intelligent tourism”. This type of tourism renounced mass tourism and rather focused a tourism development based on the local circumstances, resources and cultural conditions of Lanzarote. In an interview-series, i.e. with actors from tourism, culture and also the local population, it was discussed to what extent the former demands of an intelligent tourism might be in contrast to a perceived "too much" in tourism.
The key finding was that the intensity and impact of tourism in Lanzarote seems not yet to have been discharged into concrete conflicts. Even if the results show that a critical threshold has not been surpassed, the social and ecological capacity of tourism in Lanzarote is, slowly but surely, in danger of being reached. Among other things, this seems to be rooted in cross-destination developments, for example in the context of resorting, cruise tourism, low-cost airlines and new accommodation options. The students who volunteered the project outside their curriculum, identified some challenges resulting from these and other observations: e.g. it was described that new accommodation offers result in a serious lack of affordable housing for the local population. Furthermore, the offers in cruise tourism are regarded to be reflected in a low added value, which is generated by this group of visitors on the island. Additionally, a number of interviewees stated that even if the local population is over 85% employed in tourism, most of the generated revenue does not primarily enter regional economic cycles on the island. The revenue rather flows to a large extent to travel providers and tourist service providers in the tourists’ countries of origin.
The research group already could identify some possible approaches for the tourism development in Lanzarote, which have been discussed in the aftermath of the stay in Lanzarote: During the world’s biggest tourism fair ITB in Berlin, Prof. Pechlaner and Christian Eckert met with Héctor Fernández, Managing Director for tourism in Lanzarote, in order to present the first impressions of the survey. In the upcoming weeks, the students will analyze the results in a systematic, software-based evaluation in order to document and provide them in a final project report.
