Tourism

Development of tourism
La Palma had more hotels in 1890 than it does now.  In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many Englishmen spent their convalescent visits on the island in search of cures.  A few decades later modern tourism began, reaching its high point in the 1960s.  The decades of ‘70s and ‘80s saw a reduction in the number of tourists.  This was because the neighboring island of Tenerife was being promoted as a getaway from mass tourism.  In the late 1980s, with the expansion of the airport, La Palma began to get charter flights from several European cities.

Resorts
With a count of 7,500 beds, you can not talk about mass tourism in La Palma.  There are few big hotels, as tourists usually rent apartments or houses.  Germans make up 80% of visitors to the island.  By the mid-1990s about 140 thousand tourists visited the island each year, of which 100 thousand were Germans.  In the area of Los Llanos and El Paso, Aridane, there is an important colony of German residents who have chosen the island as their place of permanent residence.

Prospects for tourism
Unable to establish whether the island will remain a quiet place with little tourism or succumb to mass tourism, authorities (both those of the town and of the various municipalities) and environmental groups can not agree on the maximum number of beds that could support the island.

Some figures put it at eighty thousand, while others choose the more moderate estimate of only twenty thousand.  While every day there is the need to move towards sustainable tourism, most of the tourists visiting the island at present are looking for a destination with distinct, small hotels.  These tourists are respectful of the environment and are looking for rural and leisure facilities within the landscape of La Palma.

There are some projects for the development of tourism, promoted by local authorities and Cabildo of Tenerife, which seriously threaten the integrity of many protected natural areas.  One such example is a hotel and golf course with eighteen holes.  Development threatens the Protected Landscape Tamanca, a pine forest in Fuencaliente of great value in the Monteverde area, and a special protection for birds (SPAs) in La Pavona, as well as other areas.

Rural Tourism
In recent years, a trend has been introduced on the island known as rural tourism.  This mode of tourism involves the refurbishment and upgrading of old houses, while respecting the architecture both internally and externally.

This project, initially funded by LEADER of the European Union, helps to preserve the landscapes of the island because the remodeling projects can enlarge only small old houses.  The first entity incorporated in 1992 for the momentum of this sector was the Association of Rural Tourism Isla Bonita, which brings together owners of the properties with tourists.