Greenpeace criticises Lanzarote hotels

Greenpeace has mentioned four illegal hotels on Lanzarote in its report “Destruction at any Cost: Impacts of planning and climate change on the coastline”.

The Princesa Yaiza, Son Bou, Río Playa Blanca and Sandos Papagayo hotels have exceeded various planning rules relating to size, height public access to the sea, and have so far failed to provide projects to adapt to the law. Greenpeace particularly regards the decision by the Cabildo to grant the Sandos Papagayo (formerly Papagayo Arena) a provisional tourist classification last year as “surprising.”

Greenpeace’s report is also sceptical about Spanish tourist authorities’ arguments of “luxury tourism” which sells greater profitability, less social impact and supposedly sustainable measures, but continues to build hotels in areas that are already saturated.