Beginnings of Lanzarote tourism

In 1966, the Lanzarote artist Cesar Manrique returned from his stay in New York and settled permanently in Lanzarote. Manrique was soon underway to create the conditions under which the island would become a tourist destination that respects both its landscape and cultural identity, finding support in the figure of the then President of the Cabildo, Cerda Jose Ramirez.

In a decade, the two men, along with the social consciousness generated by the island newspaper La Antena, turned Lanzarote into more than a tourist destination with good weather and beaches. The landscape and agricultural nature of the volcanic island, the idiosyncrasies of the island, and the traditional art and architecture were combined to create a genuine tourist attraction.

In 1968, the island opened the stretch of the Cueva de los Verde, conditioned by the artist Jesus Soto, to the public for visitation. That same year, Manrique opened the sculpture “fertility” or “Monument to the Peasant,” in the geographical center of the island, next to a House-Museum that was inspired by the traditional architecture.

This work will continue on to the Mirador Del Rio, the Visitors Center of the Fire Mountain (Timanfaya), the International Museum of Art Castillo San Jose and the refurbishment of the Jameos del Agua. Cesar Manrique started work in the 1970s on Jameos del Agua.

In this way, when tourism was still an embryonic activity, the island had a network of centers where art and nature merged to entice foreign visitors. All this has generated an environmental awareness among the population of Lanzarote, so much so that the island was deserving of the title of Biosphere Reserve that was awarded by UNESCO in 1993.

Another key point in the last decades was the rapid decline of the fishing industry. In the early 1970s it was instrumental to the island’s economy, but now it has moved to a very secondary level. The occupation of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara from Morocco, in 1975, meant the loss of traditional fishing vessels operating in the powerful fleet of the island.

Thus, from the mid-70s there was a gradual decline of traditional sectors of the island’s primary economy, leading to the dominance of tourism and activities associated with it (such as construction, trade, catering, etc).

All these changes coincided with the time of the last years of Franco’s dictatorship and the recovery process of political freedom that would come to Spain after the transition, creating a framework of democracy and autonomy for the Canary Islands.