SHIFTING SANDS

When visitors return to the Canary Islands, they will find both the journey and the destination have changed

- TOM OTLEY

From the terrace of the 19th-century lighthouse, the scene is unchanged from last year. Children play in the gentle surf, couples take advantage of the shade of a Canary Island date palm tree, and adventurous explorers make their way back from the Maspalomas Dunes nature reserve. At the foot of the lighthouse, a sculptor carves out a wall lizard in the sand, hoping for donations.

Yet turn inland and many of the hotels are shuttered. The apartments and private houses of Playa del Ingles have only handymen in them, cutting down dead branches from palm trees and tending to swimming pools. The few pedestrians who pass by are either wearing face masks or have them conveniently wrapped around their upper arms, ready to slip on when they come close to others or enter buildings, and the traffic is non-existent.

According to tourism chiefs, the situation is unlikely to change before the autumn at the earliest. The reason is obvious, but what can the Canary Islands do to prepare itself for the return of tourism, and what should it do, if anything, to encourage it?

FOR ALL SEASONS

In one sense, the encouragement is already there in the form of the natural attractions that have made the Canary Islands so popular in recent decades. Tourists come for the climate, the facilities, the service, the food and drink, the range of accommodation options – from affordable to luxury – and the ease of access from across Europe. Or, at least, they did come, before Covid-19.