Tenerife. Quo vadis? cnt

Ireland is a country whose experience we could usefully learn from. Here is a country, a relatively small island, which has transformed itself from a peasant society, the poor man of Europe, into one of the most prosperous countries in the world with no unemployment of any significance. In fact, while traditionally its main export was its youth, now Ireland has to import many thousands of foreign workers each year. This transformation, this economic miracle, has been achieved in the space of forty years i.e. in little more than one generation.
How was this transformation achieved?
There are many factors, the more important of which are listed below:
1. Number one is undoubtedly the high standard of education which has long been a tradition in Ireland (Ireland in this context always means the Republic of or Southern Ireland or Eire). The typical Irish mother with a typically large family couldn’t provide for her children in a material sense. But, though generally uneducated herself at least in any formal sense, she was driven by a desire to give her offspring the highest standard of education possible. This philosophy, in the short term, enabled Irish emigrants to achieve success and gain valuable experience overseas. More recently it has provided a highly skilled pool of labour that attracts overseas investment…not least from these very ‘emigrants’ now returning to their homeland.
2. Membership of the EU in 1973 provided a significant growth platform when the US, for historical as well as economic reasons, and Japan especially, invested heavily in Ireland which they used as a launching pad for their exports into the EU. Thus Ireland largely leapfrogged the ‘industrial revolution’ and surged straight from a primitive agricultural society into the high tech generation.
3. The fact that English, probably better spoken than in England, was the common language and
4. An attractive fiscal regime.
Tourism has also been a major factor in Ireland’s economic development over many years. It has a wonderful blend of scenery including mountains, rivers, lakes and forests and its entire marketing rationale is based on a philosophy of a Cead Míle Fáilte..one hundred thousand welcomes! The industry was originally ignited about fifty years ago by Yankees, descendents of Irish emigrants, returning to the Emerald Isle in a quest for their roots.

Furthermore, substantial EU structural funds were largely invested in infrastructure including transportation, telecommunications and education and professional training. The total package was actively marketed worldwide by a highly skilled entity: the IDA (Industrial Development Authority).
As a consequence of the foregoing factors, suburban Dublin and indeed Ireland generally has become like Silicon Valley phase two. Microsoft has its largest European R& D center there. Dell has its largest assembly and European distribution center in Limerick. Intel manufactures its processors there. The custom built Dublin Financial Services Center is in the global league etc. At this time there is no significant unemployment in Ireland. Because it is a relatively small island and with many cultural similarities to Spain generally and Tenerife specifically it appears reasonable to assume that we could learn a lot from the Irish experience. The fundamental dynamo generating this economic miracle has been and continues to be a very high standard of education and continuous professional training.
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Residential property market in Spain

Spanish government minister for housing Beatriz Corredor says that there are 600000 empty houses in Spain with demand running at 450000. She believes that now is an excellent time to buy as prices will inevitably rise at least in line with inflation.
Certainly property in Tenerife has never been more attractive as an investment due to the same supply demand imbalance.
She believes that house prices this year will rise at least at the rate of inflation.
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What if?

What if the price of oil were to increase to 250$ a barrel? Could it change the entire concept of transport by road and indeed our entire philosophy toward road building or more specifically the construction of more and more new roads?
Europe generally can still be held up to ransom by the oil producing countries. The current rate of exchange €/$, the currency in which oil prices are dealt, is about 1,50 (dollars to euro). There is an argument that the rate should be more appropriately at a level of 1,20 (i.e. 1,20 dollars to the euro). That adjustment alone would raise the prices of petroleum in the euro zone by about 30%. At the end of the day, rates of exchange should be and must be determined by the internal purchasing power of the respective currencies and not by any artificial mechanism.
There are many factors to be taken into account such as the balance between storage and haulage i.e. the relative advantages of JIT: just in time delivery of products to outlet. Planning; both town and manpower planning are critical.
What are the implications for development and property in this scenario?
Are there too many of us already living on this planet, at 6,675billion?
What would Thomas Malthus think?
Is this scary pace of growth of the human species the real problem that we must sooner or later confront and resolve - peacefully?
Answers please to:
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Tenerife. Quo vadis?

B5) If we accept that five million visitors is just about or above saturation point for the island, beyond which diminishing returns set in, then it appears difficult to justify the construction of a second runway at airport south!

Streamlining of services, continuous professional training at all levels together with the implementation of Operations Research techniques (at both airports) should prove sufficient to cater for any occasional peaks! Perhaps instead we should consider the creation of a third level educational facility in (say) Adeje. This business school, this embryonic university, this research and development centre, should ideally have some link with Harvard or Princeton thus ensuring world-class prestige and standards. Its brief should be to design and implement courses such that graduates would emerge every four years or so with an entrepreneurial instinct oriented towards self-employment and indeed employment creation. Certainly they should be ready to successfully seek senior executive positions at home or overseas. Such courses, it is reasonable to assume, would have in their ingredient mix languages, (including English) marketing and information technology. We are talking about a centre of business excellence with our future leadership being educated rather than being taught. Perhaps we already have the foundation for this school of excellence in Adeje with CDTCA!

Shifting the Car Ferry facility from Los Cristianos to Fonsalia would appear to make sense both from the operators’ viewpoint and from the point of view of the business sector in Los Cristianos. The town appears to gain little from this activity and it may be more beneficial for it to develop and grow as a recreational port with much reduced ‘heavy’ traffic!
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Ireland Speaks

Perhaps we should digress from Tenerife Quo vadis? for a moment, to recognise the momentous rejection of the 'treaty' by the Irish electorate.
Although instructed and threathened by both local and international policitians to vote positive the electorate were not confused and stuck to their guns.
They we unhappy about such issues as immigration, taxation, abortion and sovereignty. The Celtic Tiger was constructed on a low manufacturing tax regime and there were fears that if this incentive were to be removed, in an harmonisation gesture, their would be undesirable consequences.There was a general, growing fear of big brother, of accountability going further and further away to the point of non existence.
The Irish are a small proud nation with a painful history. They are anxious to retain theire national culture and heritage. Perhaps there is an important lesson here for the rest of europe!
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Tenerife. Quo vadis? Cnt.

Blog 4
The general point being made here is that with regard to most developments, particularly in the south of Tenerife, any conformity with established principles of Town Planning would appear to be purely coincidental. We continue to build beehives and rabbit warrens that, almost by their nature, are visually unattractive. There is over intensification of development, developments out of scale with their sites and out of empathy with their immediate environment leading to adjoining projects literally screaming at each other…and at the passer-by, including the tourist! More often than not there is no overall design brief to which all the individual components should conform. Walking through some of these development ‘mixed salads’ one can easily imagine the frame of mind of the Norwegian Edvard Munch as he worked on his famous creation: The Scream. In fairness this is phase one of Tenerife development where pressure of demand has forced us to sacrifice quality for cuantity.
This man made environment is an intrinsic part of the Tenerife marketing package and is further diminished by the huge number of unfinished buildings and projects.

The fundamental question of accessibility leads one to reflect on the ‘holy trinity’ aspiration of the Tenerife ‘Movers and Shakers’: completion of the Ring Road, construction of the Granadilla Port and construction of the second runway in Reina Sofia. Perhaps the shifting of the car ferry facility from Los Cristianos to Fonsalia should also be added. No doubt the technical people at island government level have appraised, ranked and prioritised all these major capital projects, together with alternative fund deployment opportunities, using, inter alia, DCF techniques including NPV and IRR.

One wonders if, rather than closing the ring road, we shouldn’t consider, in conjunction with the decentralisation of existing employment centres and the optimum location of new employment centres, the construction of a railway from say Los Olivos in Adeje to Icod de los Vinos; feeding Santiago del Teide, Buenavista del Norte, Garachico, etc in transit. This alternative transportation system would have the advantages that:
It would be much faster and cheaper to construct; much more cost effective.
It would create little environmental damage and certainly wouldn’t leave yet another malignant scar on an already heavily haemorrhaging landscape.
It could in itself be a tourist attraction, a ‘must do’ in Tenerife, and would be a delightful way to enjoy the stunning scenery along its proposed route. How can one savour the visual delights of this magical island if careering around an endless motorway at 120KPH? Needless to say we are not talking about an AVE type train system.
If, on the other hand, we wish to use the proposed ring road section as a platform from which to extend development around the island then…that is a political decision.

The construction of the Port in Granadilla would appear to be a worthwhile proposal in principle due to its strategic location. The fact that it adjoins a potentially major industrial estate and employment centre with its REF\ZEC implications is another plus. Such a project would presumably also provide the opportunity for Santa Cruz to develop as a recreational port particularly in the sense of attracting more cruise ship activity. Santa Cruz is a beautiful city, largely unknown to tourists, that has yet to exploit its many attractions. However, if the Santacruceros wish to continue enjoying their siestas and long weekends, while affluent cruise ship clients ramble the streets aimlessly, then that is their privilege. They shouldn’t wonder if the number of cruise ships ‘parking’ near Plaza de España decline. More friendly and welcoming ports are easily found. Whether ‘Port Granadilla’ has the potential to become an international transhipment hub – Plataforma Logística Internacional - linking three continents, is a question to be determined by elaborate marketing research and not justified solely by a hunch, a dream or indeed by having the imprimatur of a mercenary, however distinguished, such as Bill Clinton. Prima facie there is a case to be made for this project. Extreme care would have to be taken regarding both the nature of cargo being transported through Canarian Waters and the quality and suitability of the transportation vehicles.
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Tenerife: Quo Vadis? cnt

The fact that Tenerife is by its nature a magical island, with most of the magic being generated directly or indirectly by Mount Teide is not open to debate. It is simply an indisputable fact, literally written in stone. Therefore in principle we have a fabulous product to market and that is the wonderful, indeed the unique, island of Tenerife. However, in order to optimise its potential, Tenerife must be marketed as an entity, as a whole, not just any specific part of it.
While the natural environment is special, the man-made environment in Tenerife is somewhat less so. It is not quite so impressive. Perhaps if we look at this man-made environment against the yardstick of internationally accepted town-planning norms we may begin to see why generally it doesn’t do justice to and match up to our unique natural inheritance.

Arguably nobody has improved on the definition of Town Planning enunciated by the late Professor Lewis Keeble, in his ‘Principles and Practice of Town and Country Planning’, almost forty years ago.
The art and science of ordering the use of land and the character and siting of buildings and communication routes so as to secure the maximum practicable degree of economy, convenience and beauty.
From this definition some fundamental principles of successful Town Planning emerge:
The promotion of accessibility; accessibility of homes to work, shops, schools and entertainment, of industry to sources of labour, power and raw materials and so on. It would hardly be going too far to call Planning a study in accessibility.
The employment of resources as economically as possible, so as to achieve the greatest possible measure of improvement with necessarily limited means.
The separation of incompatible land uses from each other and the association of compatible or mutually helpful uses and finally.
The carrying out of all development in as visually pleasant a manner as is practicable.
Planning, in a general sense, may be defined as the predetermination of a course of action. Perhaps, in a democratic society, we should be talking about Planning by demand. The problem here though is that conscious consumer wants are limited by experience and knowledge. By and large you can only want that which you know…what planners really need to know therefore, is what people would want if they understood on the one hand the full range of possibilities and on the other all the practical limitations.
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