While attention centres at present on the dramatic spat between Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelensky, who was accused by the White House – in front of the world’s media – of being ‘ungrateful’ to the United States, an equally bitter row continues in the Canary Islands between the president of Tenerife and a major tour operator.
Rosa Dávila, who heads the island’s governing Cabildo, has been urged by leading hoteliers to retract her stinging rebuke of Jet2 boss Steve Heapy recently, albeit without naming him directly. Responding to Heapy’s warning a few weeks ago the UK tourists might vote with their feet and look to Morocco and Turkey if they felt unwanted here (a reference to the sporadic waves of anti-tourism sentiment voiced in Tenerife and other parts of the country), Dávila was quoted in the media as criticising Heapy’s ‘arrogance’ and inviting him ‘to move his planes over there’ (to Morocco) if he wants’.
The widely-reported comments by Dávila have sparked concern among representatives of the hotel sector, who have described as ill-advised and uncalled for the potentially catastrophic ‘invitation’ by the most senior politician of an island whose economy depends heavily on the custom generated by millions of British tourists every year.
One leading hotelier, José Barreiro – CEO of the Coral Group which has ten hotels in Tenerife -, urged Dávila to call the Jet2 boss and apologise immediately. He added that Tenerife has forged strong bonds with UK tourists, a high number of whom are repeat visitors. According to local media, he stressed that it is not the tourists’ fault that their presence has triggered social and housing issues and the last thing the Tenerife authorities should do is to ‘take aim at one of the UK’s biggest tour operators’.
