Controlling the tourist crowds on Lanzarote

More and more tourists are heading to Lanzarote’s wild areas, and the island is feeling the strain.

25 years ago, most tourists visited Lanzarote’s protected areas on guided coach tours, and few ventured to the wilder parts of the island alone. But nowadays, factors such as publicity on social media and an increase in hire car use have led to a huge influx of unsupervised tourists.

At first, these curious tourists were welcomed. Authorities have always encouraged visitors to discover more of the island and, as a result, car parks, footpaths and information panels were installed at the Volcán del Cuervo and Montaña Colorada. But the increasingly chaotic scenes in those car parks and reports of visitors wandering freely off the paths, have led to a backlash and demands for greater control.

As a part of that control, two shuttle buses arrived on the island last month to be used to ferry tourists to Volcán del Cuervo, Montaña Colorada and Caldera Blanca, where existing car parks will be closed. The buses will operate from the parking area at Mancha Blanca, and visitor numbers will be limited by quota. The system is expected to be up and running by summer.

Meanwhile, calls for a similar park-and ride system serving Lanzarote’s most popular tourist attraction, the Fire Mountains of Timanfaya, have become stronger.

Timanfaya regularly sees long queues of vehicles waiting to enter the Fire Mountains, causing frustration for visitors and inconvenience for locals. Last month, Benjamín Perdomo, an opposition Socialist councillor at the Cabildo, said “It is unacceptable that, time and again, we see images of endless queues, cars invading protected areas, and a total lack of control. It is utterly irresponsible.”

The queues have also been denounced by representatives of the National Park, and the Guardia Civil’s wildlife wing, Seprona, both of whom have demanded immediate action from the Cabildo.

Another issue arising from the increasing amounts of adventurous tourists is the demands on emergency services. Walking and trekking have become far more popular on the island in recent years, and reports of rescues in areas such as Caldera Blanca and Montaña Roja in Playa Blanca occur almost weekly.