Irish holidays to go ahead despite demolition fears

LANZAROTE COURT RULING: THE IRISH Travel Agents Association (ITAA) has said no Irish holiday-makers with a booking for 2008 will be affected following a Canary Islands supreme court ruling which has raised fears that 22 hotels in Lanzarote could face demolition.

Listed among the mainly luxury hotels are some used by Irish tour operators, including the five-star Princess Yaiza hotel and the Papagayo Arena, which are both in Playa Blanca.

The supreme court this week annulled the building licences of 22 hotels, after it ruled that two councils had openly flouted a ban on building hotels.

The Lanzarote council is now considering whether to grant an amnesty, or to order that the hotels be demolished.

Among the hotels listed are Gran Meliá Volcán, Iberostar Papagayo, Gran Castillo, Natura Palace and H10 Rubicón Palace.

Simon Nugent, chief executive of the ITAA, which represents 180 agents around the country, said that this is "not a crisis.

"Nobody who has a booking in 2008 need be worried," he said. "We are keeping in touch with the Lanzarote authorities as to what it might mean in the long term, but nobody is stoking up the engines of the bulldozers." Sunway Holidays' spokeswoman, Fiona Bolger, said the Playa Blanca resort, where most of the affected hotels are based, "is, in the scheme of things, a very small resort" within Lanzarote. She said that although Sunway does use the luxury five-star Papagayo Arena hotel, this represents "a tiny part of our business".

The Lanzarote story "is not really big for us" she said, adding that no Irish customers had been in contact during the week regarding the story.

Damien Mooney, managing director of Falcon/JWT Holidays, confirmed that a small number of properties operated by the company in Lanzarote have been named among those hotels threatened with demolition, following the recent Spanish court ruling.

"The reported properties involved represent only a small percentage of our overall business in Lanzarote," he said. "We don't see this having any immediate impact on them at this stage but we will continue to monitor the situation closely."

He added: "We are currently seeking clarification from the Lanzarote authorities and only then will we be in a position to evaluate the possible impact on our holiday programme."

Clem Walshe of Budget Travel said the company is not concerned "at this moment in time". He said Lanzarote is a very popular destination throughout the year with Irish travellers and pointed out that the hotels listed for demolition "are rather up-market, exclusive hotels", which "would not form the backbone" of any Irish travel agent's portfolio.

"It's not going to affect the mainstream," he said.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times