What we do best

A week ago I saw something I hadn’t seen for a long time at Playa de Jablillo in Costa Teguise. Since lockdown ended, this beach has been popular with locals, with plenty of families settling on the sand and colonies of teenagers basking like lizards on the rocks.

But last week, all of a sudden, there were tourists – not just a handful, but dozens of them. The clearest sign they were tourists was not their language, their pale skin or their clothes – it was the joy of discovery that they and their children were experiencing on the beach; that precious, urgent sense of holiday fun many of us remember from our own childhoods.

We must never forget that we need tourists – not just because our economy relies on them, but because they are what we do best. The empty resorts during lockdown were eerie and frightening, and now that we are returning to some kind of normality, the island finally seems to be starting to breath again.

Much of it has been breathing through a mask for weeks, of course, but The Canarian Government has recently made the wise decision not to extend mask-wearing to all public areas. This is sensible on an outdoor island where the heat can regularly reach the 30s at this time of year, and it will hopefully be appreciated by those who choose to holiday here.

In return, we should be patient and tolerant with visitors who may not be aware of our laws and customs. Just like us, they’ll have to adjust and you can be certain that the vast majority of them will do so politely and considerately.

Lanzarote is still beautiful, it’s still safe, and it’s still welcoming. Let´s keep it that way.

Enjoy the magazine, Shaun.