Von Marlis Zoschke
Basically, Tenerife has just one major problem: mass tourism. But this leads to further problems. And as long as people just keep saying, ‚We want to… we should… we intend to‘, nothing will change.
These are all laudable declarations of intent, but their main purpose is to keep the public quiet. After all, why is there still no ‚visitors‘ tax‘? There was a bit of a fuss about it, and that was that. Typical of Tenerife.
The sewage problem has been around for a long time, but back then tourism wasn’t really that big on the whole. Where does the sewage from the Parador on Mount Teide actually go? Banana plantations were cleared and roads were built that nobody needed, because there weren’t any houses there. All that was to come later.
Sewerage and wastewater often take a back seat in the Canary Islands
On the other hand, there was street lighting on both sides of the roads that would have made some towns green with envy. And so an area where no one lived and no cars drove was lit up at night.
As far as I’m concerned, this went on for over two years. Naturally, there were no plans for a sewerage system. I’m sure they must have thought about it, but put it off until later – after all, a finished road can always be dug up again.
Whenever a building was completed, there were attractive shops and small restaurants. But here, too, there was a shortage of skilled staff. After six months, many of the shops had closed down again.
I suppose everyone has always assumed that if others can do something, so can I. But I’ve always had problems with maths. That hasn’t changed to this day. I’m experiencing it myself right now in my hotel in Berlin. Only the perfume shops never seemed to have any problems.
Training for young people in the Canary Islands is too poor
Over the years, however, things have improved in many places; but no outsider is likely to know what the situation is really like today. In my view, there has also always been a failure to provide young people with adequate training.
Carrying plates around, or making two napkins out of one (this was done in many restaurants, where four layers of a napkin were turned into two napkins) – that’s not something you really need to learn.
To that end, every restaurant used to have a complaints book. Anyone could write down their complaints in it. I wonder if that’s still the case today?
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