Tag: Finnish

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Foundation Investigated for Alleged Mismanagement of Public Funds Meant for Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

The 7th Investigative Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has opened a preliminary investigation into the Social Response Foundation Siglo XXI and four of its directors. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Las Palmas filed a complaint against them, alleging crimes that could include forgery of commercial documents, mismanagement, and embezzlement of public funds. The investigation aims to determine whether this nonprofit organisation, and its officials, could have misused public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied migrant minors, during the migration crisis of 2020 that was precipitated by the pandemic confinement on the islands, leading to a build up of arrivals having to be assessed and cared for by the Canary Islands Regional Government, using hotels left empty due to the lack of tourism. The estimated amount involved in the alleged misuse stands at around €12.5 million between 2020 and 2022 on Gran Canaria alone.

 

Canary Islands Expect Rain and Potential Storm Weather Next Week

The Canary Islands are preparing for a change in the weather next week, as a significant increase in cloud is expected bringing higher probability of rain. The effects of a powerful storm forming in the Atlantic Ocean are likely to extend to the Canary Islands as well as neighbouring Madeira and The Azores.

 

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 2-4 June 2023

June is here and that means that summer is just around the corner. The Patron Saints’ festivities in honour of San Juan de Bautista and San Antonio de Padua are just getting started on Gran Canaria, and in Pueblo de Mogán the main Romería pilgrimage for San Antonio El Chico is this first Saturday of June, as well as the start of the build up to those in Arucas, Santa Brígida and Moya. This weekend also brings the biggest outlet fair shopping experience back to INFECAR and a collectables fair in Gáldar.
OPERATION KILO is this weekend, at all participating supermarkets, asking you to add a few non-perishable food items to the Food Bank collection boxes to help families in need.

Vox Enters Canarian Politics, Stage Right: Anti-Migrant, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Green, Anti-Autonomy, Anti-LGBT, Anti-Multiculturalism, Pro-Franco politics find a foothold on The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands were unable to avoid the rise of the far right on Sunday, unlike in 2019, writes Natalia G. Vargas in Canarias Ahora. Vox, which previously had no representation on the islands, managed to make its presence felt in several municipalities and councils this May 28. They also secured seats in the Canary Islands’ regional parliament, securing four deputies. “Defending what is ours, our own, and fighting against insecurity” were the slogans that underpinned Vox’s campaign in The Canary Islands, along with “family, employment, and freedom.” This rhetoric, coupled with an electoral program that was repeated across all local elections in Spain, proved sufficient. Dozens of cities and towns on the islands welcomed their first far right candidates of the modern democratic era into Canarian politics, with urban areas serving as their main strongholds.

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

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More Finnish flying to Gran Canaria this Summer with new air routes announced, Nordic market growing

Norwegian airlines are renewing their Gran Canaria route connecting the island with Helsinki, the capital of Finland, starting next April 8, which will be operational throughout the summer season, allowing Finnish travellers to visit Gran Canaria the whole year round.
Visitors flying from Finland for many years have had no regular connection with Gran Canaria during the summer, so this new route will make it possible to make the impact of tourists from Finland less seasonal, previously having been concentrated exclusively in the winter season, said Tourism Minister of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Inés Jiménez. More than 132,300 passengers flew to the Island from Finland in 2017, an increase of 5.2% (+6,600) over the previous year, when more than 125,700 people visited Gran Canaria.
Norwegian currently has seven weekly flights between Finland and Gran Canaria over the winter season, six from Helsinki and one from Oulu. The creation of this new summer route will facilitate up to about 6,000 passengers to visit over the summer season, Jiménez concluded, and will be a reality thanks to the collaboration of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria and the flight fund, developed by the public company Promotur, for the promotion of Canary Islands tourism.
Norwegian have connected Gran Canaria with 24 airports in Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and the Iberian Peninsula over the past year moving more than half a million passengers to the Island, a figure that will continue to increase thanks to the investment made in the Peninsular and German market for 2018.
Finnair will schedule more weekly flights
The airline Finnair, which currently connects Helsinki with Gran Canaria during the winter, is to increase the frequency of their flights adding two more transfers per week, so it will go from the current five to a total of seven. This will give yet another boost to the excellent growth in arrival figures from Finnish passengers to the island, the destination chosen by half of tourists from this Nordic country travelling to the Canary Islands.
Finnair moved 22,500 passengers from Finland to Gran Canaria between January and November 2017, seeing an increase of 7% over the previous year. About 20% of Finns who visit the island fly with this airline.
A faithful market in growth
69.6% of Finnish visitors who travel to Gran Canaria are repeat tourists. Spending an average stay of 11.5 days on the island with a higher than average expenditure of around €1,250 per person.
35.5% book their holidays in Gran Canaria more than three months in advance, 70.8% choose their accommodation through the website of a tour operator, while 51% opt for non-hotel establishments.
According to the latest survey from Spanish Airport Authority AENA, Nordic arrivals grew by 7% between January and November 2017, that´s 876,000 people having travelled to Gran Canaria from Norway, Sweden, Finland or Denmark, an increase of 57,579 people over the 818,481 Nordic visitors who came to the Island during the same period of 2016.
 

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