Gazette News

Eric Willson from Romford was appointed an honorary Ambassador for Lanzarote by the island’s Tourist Board last month. 66-year-old Eric’s new position was announced in September, and he arrived to pick up his certificate a couple of months later – on his 72nd visit to Lanzarote. Eric has holidayed in Playa Blanca three or four times a year for 21 years. He always stays in the same room in the Hotel Hesperia Playa Dorada, where the staff know and welcome him like an old friend. When Eric appeared in our Lanzarote People feature in 2010 he said he didn’t want to come and live here because he “liked to be treated like a tourist.” Eric has travelled to other resorts, but it’s Lanzarote that draws him back again and again. “I think I get a bit depressed when it’s gloomy and cold,” he explained, “but it always seems to be hot in Lanzarote. I love it.”

If you haven’t got hold of the new calendar from SARA Animal shelter yet, you’re missing out on a treat. The calendar, produced thanks to Teguise Tourist department funding printing costs, shows some of the dogs and cats at the shelter enjoying the tourist opportunities in the municipality of Teguise – sunbathing at Costa, fishing at La Graciosa, or happily going walkies along some of Teguise’s footpaths. Photographer Ana Belen Dominguez snapped the animals, and created the entertaining collages, and also gave all her time and expertise free.

The calendar can be bought for €10 at SARA's base in Tahiche from Monday to Saturday from 10:30 to 13 hours, each Sunday at SARA's stand in the Teguise market (next to the tent), or at the bootsale on the second Saturday of the month.

Recently released statistics by the Cabildo’s Data Department show that the growth in the island’s population has now virtually halted. 142,517 people now officially live on the island, only 1,000 higher than last year. while Yaiza and Teguise were the municipalities that grew most, Arrecife and Haria have actually fallen in population.

The statistics also show encouraging signs for road safety, with 5 deaths this year (up to November) as opposed to 12 in 2010. In addition, road accidents of all kinds fell from 157 to 142.

Figures also show that hotel occupation has been up for most of the year, with 4 and 5 star hotels seeing the biggest increases of custom.

Lanzarote-born film-maker Roberto Perez Toledo, who we interviewed last spring, has been nominated for 15 categories of this year’s Goyas – Spain’s most prestigious film awards.

Roberto’s film, Seis Puntos Sobre Emma (Six Points About Emma), recently premiered in the Canaries and has been a remarkable word-of mouth success. On Lanzarote the film ran for four consecutive weeks at the Atlantida cinema in Arrecife, and demand meant that the cinema decided to introduce two showings a night. The principal actress, the talented Veronica Echegui has also been nominated for a best actress award.

Arrecife-born Roberto returned to launch the film, and says that one day he’d love to film on his native island.

Carlos Espino has resigned as General Secretary of the island’s Socialists due to internal pressures.

Espino resigned to avoid “a battle” within the party, which recently suffered its worst results at the general and local elections. However, many commentators feel it was Espino’s fight against corruption on the island that has  been his undoing. He was behind an article in the Spanish national press that criticised illegal hotels on Lanzarote, and was also instrumental in the Union Case, in which dozens of  local officials and businessmen have been arrested and  questioned on corruption charges. His unflagging campaign against sleaze has succeeded in uniting not only almost every other party on the island against him, but has also alienated many of his Socialist colleagues.

Playa Blanca will be without a tourist information centre after Yaiza Ayuntamiento closed the only such office in the municipality in mid-December. The decision was blasted by the Coalicion Canaria, who said “Our tourism - which is our only source of income – does not deserve to be this badly treated. …It’s amazing that 10 councillors who cost us €400,000 a year can’t keep the only office open.”

The trail of Yaiza’s ex-Mayor José Francisco Reyes continues, and has revealed that in 2005, he bought a property valued at €180,000 without any money apparently leaving the bank accounts of himself or his family members.

Reyes also spent over €100,000 on building work, furnishings and a Segway around the same period, none of which again is accounted for by his bank. Reyes faces various charges, including money laundering, fraud and misuse of public office.

The statistics also show encouraging sightings for road safety, with 5 deaths this year (up to November) as opposed to 12 in 2010. In addition, road accidents of all kinds fell from 157 to 142. Figures also show that hotel occupation has been up for most of the year, with 4 and 5 star hotels seeing the biggest increases of custom.

Aston Villa Football Club have proposed that the Lanzarote Tourist Board be their shirt sponsor next season – a move which, if successful, would place César Manrique’s iconic sun design in front of  millions of potential visitors.

Aston Villa representatives approached Lanzarote Tourism professionals during the 32nd annual World travel Fair in London this year with the proposal, which is being studied by both sides, according to a press release from Lanzarote’s Cabildo recently.

If the deal does go ahead, it will undoubtedly be  he most high-profile publicity campaign carried out by Lanzarote in the UK.