Lanzarote Cabildo launch tourism commandments

The Cabildo has launched “Ten Commandments of Tourism” as part of a campaign to inform visitors about “responsible and ethical tourism”.

The campaign aims to promote “appreciative, respectful and protective behaviour” in tourists and reduce “attitudes that may contribute to tourism-phobia”.

To launch the campaign, Cabildo President Oswaldo Betancort invited two newly-arrived tourists to sign the decalogue at the Tourism Office at Terminal 1 of César Manrique Airport.

The decalogue is as follows:

1. Artificial intelligence estimates that the world has nearly a million islands. And you have chosen ours, Lanzarote. We thank you and welcome you, and we invite you to care for it and love it as we do here.

2. Move respectfully. Don’t leave your prints in places that should only be only shaped by lava, wind and ocean.

3. Save water. It is the most precious commodity on an island punished by thirst, which has shown heroic determination in managing the scarce rainfall and moisture.

4 Let yourself be lulled. Let the music that accompanies you be the symphony of the waves against the coast, the whistle of the trade winds and the murmur of your steps on the paths of gravel and sand.

5. Don’t leave litter. Let your gaze only fall upon the volcanoes, the malpaises, the vineyards and the white of the popular architecture.

6. Be attentive and careful when you walk along the trails, you are surrounded by an incredible biodiversity that must be protected.

7. Stones, plants and marine materials are part of the landscape that you will want to return to in all its splendour. Look for your souvenirs in the shops, not in nature.

8. Treat yourself to local crafts and taste the products of the land and the sea. For their quality, for their freshness and because Canarian gastronomy will make you touch heaven.

9. Show generosity and good treatment to those who welcome you into their home with open arms.

10. True merit lies in how you choose to explore the world. If you are one of those travellers who claps upon landing to celebrate the arrival at a new destination, how about, upon leaving, it is the destination that applauds you?