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The sound of the waves crashing on Puerto Rico's beach is crystal clear.
The screams of the seagulls over the bay, the call of the parrots in the park beyond, the rustling of the palm trees in the wind - every sound is as clear as in the recording studio.
For the first time in almost half a century, these noises are no longer overlaid during the day by the noise of the cars and thousands of bathers who normally enjoy themselves close to the sea in this bay in the southwest of Gran Canaria.
Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, everything has been different on the popular Canary Island.
Especially in the holiday strongholds it is empty and quiet, and in many places it seems deserted.
The Canary Islands, especially Tenerife and Gran Canaria, are groaning under the effects of the travel restrictions that have been going on for months.
Tourism fell to the levels of the early 1990s in 2020.
A good 15 million vacationers came to the Atlantic Islands in 2019, last year there were only 5.7 million.
At the weekend, a march of people who previously had a good living often forms in Puerto Rico.
José Rodríguez has already marched with them.
He stands lost next to his taxi at the end of the beach park.
Usually things go around here, today he is the only driver at the stand.
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“We are doing badly.
The corona crisis has brought our income to almost zero.
We only work shifts, every four days.
We have to limit our lives, cut costs everywhere. ”Of 170 taxi drivers, only the self-employed like Rodríguez still work.
The others, he says, are on short-time work, that's
Erte
in Spain.
In December alone, another 20,000 workers applied for
harvest
in the Canary
Islands
.
What does he think when things will go up again?
The man in his mid-forties laughs bitterly: “That is the question that everyone is asking here.
I think not until next winter.
Before that there won't be enough vaccine, before that the countries won't lift their travel restrictions. "
Empty hotels and beaches in the south of Gran Canaria
Puerto Rico is the largest holiday development in southwest Gran Canaria.
The place with its over 20,000 beds is a product of mass tourism.
Now all the bars that frame the beach in a wide semicircle are closed.
No colored flags, only sheets with painted protests fluttering in the wind.
“SOS, the hospitality industry is dying” reads on it.
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In the village itself, the effects of the pandemic on local businesses are evident.
The oldest shopping center in southwest Gran Canaria, the Centro Comercial Puerto Rico, has long been a treasure trove for cheap souvenirs, duty-free cigarettes and perfumes, flanked by pizzerias and beer bars.
Most of it has been closed for months.
No tourists: In front of the Mogán Mall in the south of the island, locals queue for shopping vouchers - with mask and distance
Source: Sven Less
The Mogán Mall, which opened in 2019, right next door, with 71 shops and a drive-in fast food restaurant, was supposed to usher in the dawn of the 21st century.
Instead, the orphaned shops are now giving away shopping vouchers for the local population, who queues for them.
Many Puerto Rico vacation complexes stay dark at night.
It looks no different in the much larger tourist centers in the south of the island, such as Playa del Inglés, Maspalomas and Meloneras with over 80,000 beds.
There, too, the beaches are empty.
In the famous dunes of Maspalomas individual holidaymakers lose themselves like scattered people in the desert.
Companies in the Canary Islands waited a year for help
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"I estimate 70 percent of the hotels here in the Canary Islands are closed," says Nicolás Villalobos.
The 46-year-old is not only the general manager of the Cordial hotel chain with a good dozen hotels in Gran Canaria.
He is also on the board of the hotel association FEHT.
The occupancy rate on the island is currently 15 to 20 percent.
“There are hotels that will survive.
But of course that depends on how healthy they were before the pandemic. ”But they too are slowly running out of breath.
“We had to close for months a year ago.
In mid-July we believed that we would still have a decent summer after all.
But then came the second wave and the travel warnings.
They flattened everything. "
The hotel association has negotiated with the island government about the extension of short-time work, applied for tax deferrals from the municipalities, and reduced costs in the companies, says Villalobos.
In the Canary Islands there was initially no state support for companies during the lockdown.
The government recently launched an aid package of 400 million euros - one year after the start of the pandemic.
The number of vacationers fell by 70 percent
The balance after a year of pandemic is devastating: 35 percent of the gross domestic product in the Canary Islands is generated directly in tourism, for example in hotels and restaurants.
If you include the indirect environment, including jobs like that of taxi driver José Rodríguez, tourism accounts for 80 percent of economic output.
The labor market depends at least 40 percent on the travel industry.
90 percent of tourism sales were lost in 2020, which means a loss of around ten billion euros in revenue.
The number of vacationers fell by 70 percent.
Three quarters of the flight connections to Gran Canaria alone from the most important source markets Great Britain and Germany have been canceled.
Germans are very wanderlust, and their concerns are even greater
Germans are very fond of traveling.
The concerns about the corona pandemic seem to be greater.
Because where you will be able to travel this year, what to expect there or whether you have to be vaccinated - all of this can hardly be predicted at the moment.
Source: WELT / Sandra Saatmann
And then Angela Merkel said the fateful sentence in October: “Please stay at home.” “I understand that, in times of pandemics, the Chancellor must demand cautious behavior from the citizens,” says Antonio Morales.
As the island's president, he holds the highest political office in Gran Canaria and receives guests in his office in the island's capital, Las Palmas.
“On the other hand, I think that traveling to the Canary Islands is a need for many Germans, both physically and mentally.
The mild climate here is good for your health in cold times.
Therefore, many people find, even if it entails a certain risk, that it is still worth it for them.
Especially since it is currently more risky to stay in Germany than to come to us. "
Corona as an opportunity for the Canary Islands
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That's not entirely true when you look at the 7-day Covid-19 incidence value.
For all Canary Islands, this is currently 64 newly infected per 100,000 inhabitants.
The incidence value for Germany has been slightly below since Friday at 62, but was above it for a long time.
Gran Canaria had a value below 50 for months, the current incidence is 76.
And everything is done to protect residents and visitors, says island president Morales.
“We carry out PCR and antigen tests, create protected rooms for people at risk as well as for infected people on the island.
There is also tremendous professionalism in the tourism sector.
We do everything for security. "
Pretty empty: there are currently more parasols than guests on the beaches of Gran Canaria's capital Las Palmas
Source: imago images / Lagencia / imago stock
Hotel association boss Villalobos sees it similarly.
Above all, the remote location of the archipelago, the mild climate and the outdoor life play the Canaries in the cards, he believes.
If politicians had acted faster, the virus would have stayed completely away: “We are islands.
The virus moves with people, and here we are isolated.
We can control everyone who arrives.
Had we done it from the first day of the pandemic, we would never have had a case.
That is why it is now so important that all holidaymakers can consistently show a negative test result. "
Villalobos thinks that the crisis also offers an opportunity - to think about the tourism future of the Canary Islands after the pandemic.
“In the short term, the all-inclusive urban complexes, where people are close together, will still determine the picture.” But: “In the medium term, the new needs of holidaymakers will play an increasingly important role.
And they want more distance, distance and space. ”So there should be more bungalows and holiday apartments.
Is algae cultivation an alternative to mass tourism?
That sounds like a late realization.
But what Villalobos does not mention: New systems mean additional land consumption - so that would not necessarily be sustainable.
And mass tourism is not being questioned by all those responsible.
Island President Antonio Morales, for example, considers restructuring tourism to be difficult: “It's not that easy to change.
We would all like that.
But that doesn't happen overnight. ”Many large hotel complexes cannot be converted at all.
And if the demand for all-inclusive holidays increases again in the period after Corona, the business model will continue to be suitable.
Imitation desired: This decorative cow advertises in Las Palmas with mouth and nose protection for compliance with the mask requirement
Source: PA / NurPhoto / Emmanuele Contini
Morales sees an opportunity in Gran Canaria in new business areas that could reduce dependency on tourism: “We have to diversify our economy.
And there are alternatives: Agriculture, for example - we are working on concepts to promote self-sufficiency with food, a sector that we have lost to tourism.
Then of course renewable energies, wind power.
And at the moment research on the islands in the field of algae cultivation for medical and cosmetic purposes is also being advanced. "
Reinvigorating agriculture is not without irony.
Until the 1990s, large parts of the island were covered by tomato plantations, banana plantations and orange groves.
It was only tourism that caused the farmers to migrate to the holiday centers in order to work as waiters or taxi drivers.
The terraced fields fell into disrepair, the water supply to the golf courses was now more important than that of the fields.
Las Palmas - a top destination for digital nomads
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A sector that has hardly been in focus so far is really innovative, but in the Canaries it allows ideally contemporary professional practice in the corona lockdown: a combination of being on the
move
and mobile work,
called
teletrabajo
in Spanish
.
"There are many people all over Europe for whom it is attractive to work in a safe place, in a good climate, where you can also take a break on the beach, go for a walk, hike, spend free time in nature," says Island President Morales.
"With us, that is absolutely compatible - while it is cold elsewhere, snow is falling and much more the virus is on its way."
The target group are young, flexible, independent freelancers - IT experts, freelance journalists, specialists in the New Economy who can pursue their profession from anywhere in the world.
And they are already there: in 2020, 30 new start-ups for the digital nomads of the 21st century were founded in Las Palmas alone, most of them in the Triana business district.
The largest, The House, has co-working spaces with super-fast internet for 60 people.
Hundreds of such freelancers, two thirds under 40 years of age, are now working in the island's capital and enjoying a life like in Western Europe, but with significantly better weather and at lower costs.
In 2018, the “Condé Nast Traveler”, the British magazine for individual travel, praised Las Palmas as the “new Silicon Valley” and chose the city as one of the top destinations for digital nomads.
Holiday apartments are even being built in the pandemic
Time will tell whether the islands will succeed in modernizing themselves or whether, once the mass of guests have been vaccinated against Corona, they will fall back into the old rut.
So far, the virus has not led to a state of shock.
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It cannot be overlooked that many of the aging hotel complexes on Gran Canaria are currently being thoroughly renovated, and the decades-old shopping center in Puerto Rico is currently being renovated.
And even now, during the pandemic, apartment complexes will no longer be all-inclusive, no mass buffets, no tightly packed sun loungers by the pool.
If you want to hear the sound of the waves, the screeching of seagulls on Puerto Rico Bay, and the call of the parrots in the park beyond, you should come soon.
Source: WORLD infographic
Tips and information
Getting there:
Condor and Eurowings are currently flying from several German cities to the Canaries, sometimes to two islands in a row.
Corona rules:
A negative PCR test (in Spanish or English) is required for entry, which must not be older than 72 hours.
In addition, an online registration must be submitted, which must be completed no earlier than 48 hours prior to entry (spth.gob.es), the QR code sent to you must be presented upon entry.
Temperature measurement, evaluation of the entry form and visual inspection take place at the airport.
In Gran Canaria there is a mask requirement in all public places and a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
All of Spain is currently listed as a high incidence area by the Robert Koch Institute, which is why the Foreign Office has issued a travel warning.
Returning travelers have to prove a negative test result on entry, and quarantine and registration requirements apply in Germany (einreiseanmeldung.de).
Further information:
spain.info/de;
turismodeislascanarias.com
This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG. We are happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.
Source: Welt am Sonntag