The Cabildo de Gran Canaria have announced €5m to recover important southern enclaves such as the Dunes of Maspalomas, the Faro de Maspalomas lighthouse and the little known Tony Gallardo Park, as well as to assist in the permanent installation of Cirque du Soleil in the south and to help expedite the much maligned Siam Park waterpark project, with the aim of adding its institutional weight to the works already undertaken by the private sector to help achieve a high quality offer for tourism, which is of course the main industry and economic engine of the island.

Gran Canaria has in recent years registered record numbers in the arrival of visitors, as a result of various factors including the actions of private and public agents, and there are also internal and external causes, but there have been remarkable efforts such as the investment of entrepreneurs in their facilities, and the responsibility and competence of workers and professionals, who also supported wage restraint during the crisis.

The Cabildo has contributed with actions along five fronts, the first of them promoting the national and international projection of Gran Canaria and its values, followed by the promotion of connectivity, so that the island will be better connected to more than 150 airports by the end of this year, thirdly, providing quality information to tourists -with the opening of an information point in Meloneras, the revitalisation of the one next to the Yumbo and soon the opening of yet another one at the Faro de maspalomas – as well as promoting the incentivisation of quality and professional innovation.

The fifth dimension of the actions from the Cabildo de Gran Canaria focuses on the recovery and creation of new quality spaces in the southern tourist area, in this case of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, where they plan a further five pronged attack.

The first of these is every effort to ensure the recovery of the Dunes of Maspalomas, a most emblematic spot on the south and Gran Canaria, to preserve their beauty and allow them to be visited without being adversely affected. Heralding a pioneering project at the international level of intervention in dry dunes, the Cabildo has invested more than €1.1 million in the first phase to move sand, plant balancones plants, and regenerate sederos.

Also within the natural space and next to the Dunes is the Tony Gallardo Park, the Cabildo is investing €1.9 million in recovering it and preserving all its environmental wealth, a “green lung” of the south that can not wait any longer to be recovered and whose work progresses towards revitalization and water features.

Since the beginning of this Cabildos mandate, the Institution has made important legal and administrative efforts to unblock the rehabilitation of the Faro de Maspalomas Lighthouse, which has finally been awarded close to €1.4 million, which will be followed by another investment of €500,000. Important legal and administrative efforts have also involved the contribution of the Cabildo so that the private initiative can move forward most important develpments like Siam Park, aiming it towards being the very best water park in the world.

In this same direction the recently announced Cirque du Soleil initiative seeks to set up a permanent space in Gran Canaria for this world famous circus company  which the Cabildo de Gran Canaria has committed to from the first moment and that at present also advances towards being realised.

The municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana is also a recipient of €6 million in the framework of the City Council’s Plan of Cooperation with City Councils and another €10 million from the subsidy scheme Fdcan Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria has already surpassed 4.5 million tourists, over a million more than in 2014, and although growth in quantity is not the only parameter to be taken into account, it is important that money is spent at the destination and for this they need to offer quality, the figures have had very positive effects and the Cabildo is working to promote both parameters, both the flow of visitors and the supply of quality products, be they infrastructure, leisure, gourmet tourism, star tourism or active tourism, a range in which the Tourist Board of Gran Canaria turns, key in the insular tourist policy.