Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife.
A Record Breaking Year
Despite newspapers reporting the doom and gloom of a seemingly never-ending economic crisis, The Canary Islands’ airports enjoyed a record-breaking year in terms of passengers passing through them. 35 million people touched down or took off from an airport on one of the islands, the highest figure in the history of air travel in the archipelago. The biggest winner was Fuerteventura which saw an 18.6% increase in passengers with Tenerife South following closely behind with a 17.6% increase. The only Canarian airport that registered a decrease was poor little El Hierro’s…no surprise considering the threat of volcanic eruption. With that situation stabilising, the island should see a significant change this year.
In terms of numbers, Gran Canaria came out top with 10.5 million passengers, although Tenerife Spanish language newspapers were quick to point out that if you added the figures for Tenerife’s two airports together (8.6 million in Tenerife and 4.1 in Tenerife Norte), it came to 12.7 million for Tenerife; much more than Gran Canaria which is clearly the most important piece of news of all.
La Orotava – A Touchy, Feely Town
In a bid to encourage visitors to really get a feel for the town, La Orotava council have produced a small guide whose aim is to encourage visitors to experience ‘los cinco sentidos’ – the five senses. Oddly the guide, which isn’t free but only costs 0.50 cents, has six sections; Mirame (look) which focusses on museums and urban landscapes; Tócame (touch) which concentrates on architecture; Huéleme (smell) about the gofio mills; Escúchame (listen) about churches and religious sites (the listen part is presumably church bells); Saboréame (taste) obviously aimed at wine and gastronomy and the sixth sense (for all those mediums out there), Intúyeme (Intuition?) about discovering the town’s gardens and squares. 50,000 copies of the guide have published – more than enough for the 40,000 visitors to La Orotava’s tourist offices last year. Hold on a minute…50,000 guides for 40,000 visitors? A guide about ‘the five senses’ that actually lists six? Maybe they need to add a new section called ‘count me’.
A Plague in El Médano
The sea at the main beach in El Médano was not the place to be this week as the local council restricted access due to a plague of jellyfish (medusas in Spanish, which is rather mythical). At least seven people had to be treated for stings. If you happen to be in the vicinity when someone is stung by a jellyfish, scientists actually advise against doing what Joey did in Friends all those years ago and urinating on the victim. A) it’s anti-social and B) some scientists claim it might even aggravate the sting. Best course of action is to run to the nearest restaurant, grab a bottle of vinegar and wash the infected area with that.
The North Hospital Nearly Ready to Open
It’s good news, bad news time again on Tenerife. The good news is that the new north hospital near Icod de los Vinos will open on 31st March. The bad news is that it will only be able to provide a restricted emergency service. The potentially worse news is that there are still issues over funding and staffing, with possible trouble brewing after it was suggested that medical staff from other facilities were drafted in to meet the deadline for opening. Robbing Peter to pay Paul simply isn’t a solution.
And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…Arona
The Blue Flag status of the beaches in one of Tenerife’s main tourist areas, Arona (which includes Playa de las Américas, Los Cristianos, Las Galletas, Costa del Silencio, Palm Mar) could be in jeopardy according to opposition politicians who claim that ‘disastrous management’ on the part of the council has led to the municipality losing its maritime rescue service.
The contract to carry out the role of patrolling the coast, sea rescues and the management of bathing facilities for people with disabilities ended in November…but no action has yet been taken to renegotiate a new contract by the council according to opposition sources who claim this should have been done and dusted by June 2011.
It seems incredible that something as important to tourism in an area that has been one of the most popular with visitors to Tenerife for over 40 years could be simply overlooked. But as our heading says – this is Tenerife.
