Canary Green Forum Puts Sustainable Tourism Network At Centre Of Canary Islands Travel

The Canary Islands' sustainable tourism network has taken a visible step forward after the first Soy Canary Green leaders forum brought together tourism businesses, municipalities, ambassadors and partner organisations in Tenerife, recognising 50 companies and strengthening a platform designed to connect responsible travel with the everyday visitor experience.

The forum, held at Bodega El Lomo in Tegueste, was organised around the Soy Canary Green initiative promoted by the Association of Tourist Municipalities of the Canary Islands, known as AMTC. The project is not a single resort campaign or a one-off awards event. It is an attempt to build a practical network around sustainability, digitalisation, destination management, local identity, visitor behaviour and cooperation between public and private actors in the islands' busiest tourism municipalities.

For visitors, the news matters because it shows how the Canary Islands are trying to make responsible tourism easier to identify and easier to practise. Sustainable travel often sounds abstract until it appears in the places holidaymakers actually use: hotels, attractions, guided experiences, wineries, excursion providers, booking systems, beach areas, mobility services, animal-welfare projects, museums, parks and local businesses. Soy Canary Green is trying to move that conversation from slogans into recognisable places, services and choices.

The forum recognised 50 companies with the Soy Canary Green distinction, highlighted the work of 20 project ambassadors and welcomed nine organisations as strategic partners. It also created a meeting point for institutions and companies to discuss how the islands can protect the territory, diversify the tourism offer, improve the visitor experience and make sustainability part of normal business practice rather than a decorative label.

A Forum Built Around Cooperation, Not Just Awards

The first important point is that the Tegueste meeting was not framed only as a ceremony. Soy Canary Green described it as a space to recognise, share and keep building alliances. That distinction matters in a destination where tourism is both the main economic engine and one of the main sources of pressure on housing, mobility, natural spaces, public services, water use, waste management and local identity.

The Canary Islands receive millions of visitors each year because they offer reliable sun, volcanic landscapes, beach resorts, family attractions, food culture, year-round outdoor activity and unusually varied island experiences within short distances. Those same strengths create a management challenge. A better tourism model cannot depend only on asking visitors to behave better, or only on asking hotels to reduce energy use, or only on municipalities to add signs. The practical work has to join those pieces together.

That is why the forum's emphasis on companies, ambassadors, municipalities and strategic partners is important. The network approach recognises that a visitor's holiday is shaped by many small decisions: where to stay, how to move around, which attractions to visit, which tours to book, whether to respect protected areas, whether local products are easy to find, whether information is clear, and whether businesses explain sustainability in a way that feels useful rather than moralising.

The 50 recognised companies are intended to make that network more visible. The 20 ambassadors give the project a more human route into the territory, linking sustainability to people, culture, crafts, nature, food, business practice and local knowledge. The nine strategic partners expand the project beyond municipal branding and give it a stronger base in research, training, product development, innovation, conservation and tourism operations.

Why Loro Parque, Siam Park And Poema Del Mar Stand Out

Among the most recognisable names connected with the forum are Loro Parque, Siam Park and Poema del Mar, three major visitor attractions associated with Grupo Loro Parque. Their recognition with the Soy Canary Green sustainability distinction gives the story a clear tourism hook because these are not niche operators. They are high-profile attractions visited by holidaymakers from across Europe and beyond.

Loro Parque in Puerto de la Cruz is one of Tenerife's best-known attractions. Siam Park, in the south of Tenerife, is one of the island's major leisure draws for families and resort visitors. Poema del Mar, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has become part of the capital's visitor offer, particularly for travellers combining city time with cruise calls, beach days, shopping, gastronomy and cultural visits.

When attractions at that scale are placed inside a sustainability network, the potential influence is wider than the organisations themselves. Large attractions communicate with guests before, during and after visits. They manage transport flows, queues, energy, water, waste, food and merchandise. They also shape expectations about what a Canary Islands holiday should include. If major attractions present sustainability as part of quality, not as an optional extra, they can help normalise the idea for a much broader audience.

The forum also marked the entry of Loro Parque Foundation as a strategic partner of Soy Canary Green. That matters because the foundation brings an established conservation and education profile to a project focused on transforming tourism practice. The useful question for the visitor economy is not whether every tourist reads sustainability strategies. Most will not. The question is whether the systems around their holiday make better choices more available, more understandable and more attractive.

What Soy Canary Green Is Trying To Do

Soy Canary Green is part of the wider Canary Green strategy promoted by the AMTC and its associated tourist municipalities. The initiative brings together 14 destinations: Adeje, Arona, Guia de Isora, San Miguel de Abona, Santiago del Teide and Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife; Mogan and San Bartolome de Tirajana in Gran Canaria; Tias, Teguise and Yaiza in Lanzarote; and Pajara, La Oliva and Antigua in Fuerteventura.

That list is significant because it includes many of the archipelago's busiest and best-known resort municipalities. Costa Adeje, Los Cristianos, Playa de las Americas, Puerto de la Cruz, Puerto Rico, Mogan, Maspalomas, Playa del Ingles, Puerto del Carmen, Costa Teguise, Playa Blanca, Corralejo, Caleta de Fuste and Jandia are all part of the wider visitor geography represented by these municipalities or their tourism areas.

The project's stated aim is to preserve the natural, cultural and social value of the Canary Islands while supporting a more sustainable, participatory and conscious tourism model. In practical terms, the programme points to digital tools, destination intelligence, sustainable mobility, visitor information, water-quality monitoring, capacity management in beaches and parking areas, electric-vehicle charging, energy-efficient lighting, local-business visibility and training.

Those elements may sound technical, but they connect directly with the holiday experience. A cleaner bathing area, a better-managed beach car park, clearer information about responsible businesses, less congestion in resort streets, better access to local products and more reliable visitor data can all improve the trip. Sustainability becomes more credible when it helps a destination work better for both residents and visitors.

A More Useful Kind Of Sustainability For Travellers

One of the weaknesses of sustainable tourism messaging is that it can become too general. Travellers are told to respect the destination, save water, reduce waste and support local businesses, but they are not always shown how to do that in practical terms. They may not know which businesses have made verifiable changes, which experiences support local communities, which mobility choices are realistic, or which actions matter most in a specific place.

A network such as Soy Canary Green can help if it makes the choices more legible. A visitor staying in southern Tenerife, southern Gran Canaria, Lanzarote or Fuerteventura is more likely to act responsibly when guidance is visible at the right moment: during booking, at hotel reception, inside an attraction, on a municipal app, at a beach access point, in a car park, in an excursion confirmation or in a local business directory.

The project also responds to a shift in visitor expectations. Many travellers still choose the Canary Islands primarily for sunshine, beaches and value, but repeat visitors increasingly want richer holidays: local food, wine, craft, nature, walking, culture, village visits, marine experiences and lower-impact excursions. Sustainable tourism is strongest when it improves those experiences rather than asking people to enjoy less.

For example, a visitor who discovers a local winery, a responsible marine operator, a rural restaurant, a guided cultural route or a conservation-minded attraction may spend more locally and leave with a deeper impression of the island. A family that receives clear advice on beach capacity, transport or water use may have a smoother holiday. A resort that reduces congestion and improves public-space management becomes more pleasant, not less tourist-friendly.

Why Municipalities Are Central To The Story

The AMTC's role matters because tourism in the Canary Islands is experienced locally. Regional strategies set direction, but visitors feel tourism management on municipal streets, beaches, promenades, bus stops, taxi ranks, shopping areas, natural-space access points, event venues and resort zones.

A hotel can reduce its own footprint, but if the surrounding resort has poor mobility, weak signage, unmanaged waste or congested public areas, the visitor experience still suffers. An attraction can have strong sustainability credentials, but if guests arrive by thousands of individual cars because public transport or coordinated transfers are not convenient, the broader impact remains. A municipality can install better systems, but businesses need to communicate them and visitors need to understand them.

That is why a municipal network is useful. Adeje and Arona face different pressures from Teguise or La Oliva. Mogan is not the same as Puerto de la Cruz. Playa Blanca, Puerto del Carmen, Maspalomas, Corralejo and Costa Adeje each have their own resort structure, visitor mix, transport pattern and environmental setting. But they share enough challenges to benefit from common tools and shared learning.

For tourism businesses, the forum's message is that sustainability is becoming part of destination competitiveness. It is not only about regulatory compliance or public image. It affects staff recruitment, operating costs, customer trust, product quality, local acceptance and long-term access to the landscapes and communities that make holidays possible.

What This Means For Canary Islands Holidays

Travellers should not read the forum as a sign of new restrictions, entry requirements or holiday rules. It does not change how visitors book flights, hotels or package holidays. There is no new tourist tax in this announcement, no resort access limit and no instruction to avoid the islands' major attractions.

The more realistic interpretation is that the Canary Islands are trying to make their tourism model more organised, more data-informed and more visibly connected to local value. The shift may appear gradually through better information, more recognised businesses, more digital tools, more sustainable mobility options, clearer municipal campaigns and stronger links between attractions, local products and responsible visitor behaviour.

For holidaymakers, the practical response is straightforward. Look for businesses that explain what they are doing, not only what they are selling. Ask hotels and excursion desks about local options. Respect beach and natural-space rules. Use official information where possible. Choose experiences that connect with the island rather than treating it only as a backdrop. When visiting major attractions, pay attention to conservation, education and waste-reduction messages because these are increasingly part of the destination's future.

For repeat visitors, this could make holidays more interesting. A stronger sustainable-tourism network can point travellers toward experiences they may have missed: wine tourism in Tenerife and Lanzarote, marine interpretation, local crafts, responsible wildlife education, small producers, walking routes, rural food, cultural heritage and resort initiatives designed to reduce pressure without reducing enjoyment.

The Business Case Behind The Green Message

The Canary Islands do not need sustainability because it sounds good in a brochure. They need it because tourism depends on resources that can be damaged by unmanaged success. Beaches, water, landscapes, biodiversity, public spaces, local communities and worker availability are not decorative background elements. They are part of the product.

That is why the forum's focus on alliances is more than polite language. A destination with high visitor numbers cannot solve sustainability through isolated gestures. It needs businesses to change operations, municipalities to manage space, technology providers to improve information, attractions to educate at scale, residents to see benefits, and visitors to understand their role without feeling unwelcome.

The recognition of 50 companies gives the programme a practical base. The ambassadors help carry the message beyond formal institutions. The strategic partners can support the next stage with expertise. The involvement of major attractions gives the initiative visibility. The challenge now is to turn that visibility into useful, measurable improvements that visitors can recognise on the ground.

There is also an SEO-relevant travel-planning point here: sustainable tourism in the Canary Islands is no longer only about remote rural escapes or small eco-lodges. It is entering the mainstream resort economy. That includes theme parks, aquariums, tourist municipalities, booking technology, water monitoring, beach-capacity systems, local product networks and mobility planning. For a destination built on mass accessibility, that mainstreaming is essential.

A Signal Of Where Canary Islands Tourism Is Heading

The first Soy Canary Green leaders forum should be understood as a signal rather than a finished transformation. It shows the direction of travel: more cooperation, more visible responsible businesses, more municipal coordination, more attention to visitor behaviour and more effort to connect sustainability with quality.

For the FlyToCanarias audience, the practical takeaway is simple. Canary Islands holidays are not becoming less welcoming because sustainability is moving up the agenda. The stronger argument is the opposite: better management is what keeps the islands enjoyable, distinctive and resilient for future trips.

Visitors will still come for beaches, sunshine, hotels, parks, family activities, nightlife, hiking, food and island hopping. What is changing is the expectation that these experiences should be managed with more care for the places and people behind them. If Soy Canary Green can help make that care visible, easy to understand and useful in real holiday decisions, the forum in Tegueste may prove more than a networking event. It may become part of the practical infrastructure of a better Canary Islands visitor economy.