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THE INDEPENDENT ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER WITH LOCAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS
FRIDAY 10th APRIL TO THURSDAY 23rd APRIL 2015 MOVIES IN ENGLISH
EDITION 523
PAGE 3
SAFEGUARD HOTEL MÉDANO
PAGE 6
PAGES 29 - 36
CRUISE LINERS EYE LOS GIGANTES
EUROPE’S ASSURANCE
Canary airports and routes “not at risk”
Latvian interest in tourism plan
Photo by Gerard Zenou
T T
HE possibility of cruise ships coming in to Los Gigantes has moved another step closer to becoming a reality.
Santiago del Teide council says it has received letters from the Ministry of Development giving the green light to the idea in principle. Local councillor for trade, Emilio Navarro has also had a
meeting with a Latvian entrepreneur who is interested in funding cruise liner arrivals at the marina. A report from the Ministry of Public Works has confirmed that funding would be
available for cruise ships to arrive on the outskirts of the harbour. Passengers would then disembark and be taken to Los Gigantes by small boats. The conditions here are said to be amongst the best on Tenerife for this type of operation as there is plenty of shelter from the winds. The cruise liners could anchor near
Mystery as patera spotted
A
major search and rescue operation was launched over the Easter weekend after a small boat containing illegal immigrants was spotted off the coast of Arona.
The emergency helicopter was sent out following reports that a patera had been spotted around the Las Galletas area. The search was intensified after three of the alleged occupants, all minors aged between 15 and 16, were caught on land. They reported they had arrived on a boat which had left Morocco five days before, together with a group of between 16 and 20 people all of Saharan origin. Police said the trio caught showed signs of hypothermia and dehydration and their story appeared to be backed up when a small boat was found washed off the coast of Arona. The search was continuing at the time the Tenerife News went to press.
the south end of the beach of El Paso which starts south of El Jurado. The authorities say the cruise ship passengers would be able to spend a day exploring not only Los Gigantes but other areas around it, giving a great boost to tourism and helping to revitalise the commercial areas. It is estimated that the new cruise tourism would enhance direct and indirect employment to the tune of around 400 to 500 jobs, depending on the scale and frequency of arrivals.
HE European Commission does not believe the partial privatisation of the Spanish airport authority AENA will have an adverse effect on the Canary Islands. The archipelago is against the move because the various authorities believe it will be detrimental and that the new owners will only concentrate on profitable airports and ignore the smaller ones, putting them at risk. European Member of Parliament for the PSOE, Juan Fernando López Aguilar posed this question to Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc. The MEP argued that AENA was in the hands of the financial interests of private entrepreneurs which would jeopardize the mobility of the population of the Canaries, a region which already had to fight against the difficulties of its geographic location. He also feared that partial privatisation would lead to an increase in air fares which would have a negative effect on tourism, the main economic activity of the islands.
However, the Commissioner said he did not think this was the case as there were various models of airport operations in Europe, from full privatisation to concessions and the rules of EU airports did not distinguish between the two. He also pointed out that legislation would always ensure an adequate level of services with public service obligations which had already been imposed on 13 routes between the Canary Islands. Therefore if in the future the Spanish authorities decided that a route was not viable, there was the option to apply for public service obligation status. Unions do not agree with this stance and fear that if 49 per cent of the AENA shares go into private hands, the Canaries WILL suffer.