The Canary Islands will finally address laws for tourist municipalities after almost 30 years

The Government of the Canary Islands will study the concept of tourist municipalities in this legislative term and define the criteria for designating them, as announced by the Minister of Tourism, Jessica de León, yesterday (Tuesday), describing the task as "one of the major challenges of legislative reform."

During her speech in Parliament yesterday, she recalled that parameters for designating tourist municipalities have never been established. As far back as 1995, the Tourism Ordinance Law of the Canary Islands urged the government to draft a statute for tourist municipalities within six months, but this was never carried out.

Subsequently, in 2007, the Government drafted a bill defining a tourist municipality as "one with a number of tourist accommodation places equal to or greater than 40% of its population." Although the initiative was registered in the regional Parliament, it was never processed.

Thus, the minister pointed out, "We have had a task pending for almost thirty years, with the concept of a tourist municipality being hitherto referenced to the Local Tax Law, which links it to the total number of second homes and a minimum population."

De León believes it is necessary to review this definition, which should not be limited to the number of tourist accommodation places or second homes but should also consider other indicators such as visitor influx.

Therefore, the Ministry of Tourism will address this concept in this legislative term as part of the reform aimed at updating the framework regulating tourist activity, which has become obsolete with laws ranging from 8 to 28 years old.