financial excesses

TENERIFE
The avant-garde Tenerife Auditorium.
dergone massive transformation
over the past three decades.
Hotels, apartment complexes,
shopping centres and
bars are now strung along the
Costa Adeje, once an inhospitable
wasteland of lava debris.
“There is a huge selection of
hotels with outstanding infrastructure
– perfect for holding
conferences and meetings inhouse,”
says Stefan Rothenaicher,
divisional manager at
DMC Maxchoice. And not only
are the transfer times between
hotel and conference
centre negligible, on the scenically
extremely varied island
practically every destination is
less than an hour’s drive away.
“That’s why promotional films
like Toyota’s Avensis spot with
(former German football goalkeeper)
Oliver Kahn and the
cinema film Clash of the Titans
were made here.”
Rothenaicher, who is amongst
Seven Green
Sea Turtle
others responsible on the island
for KHD Humbolt Wedag’s
client meetings programme,
previously worked
for many years as a quality and
environmental management
Seven specimens of
the Green Sea Turtle.
auditor at the German Technical
Control Board and is also
committed to this subject on
Tenerife (www.maxchoiceislands.de).
“Tenerife is well
on the way to becoming an
eco destination; a lot of
thought is being devoted at
present to certification,” Rothenaicher
says of the future.
“Some hotels, golf clubs and
the Loro Park amusement
park and zoo have already obtained
ISO 14001 certification.”
A diving club at El Puertito in
Adeje is also dedicated to sustainability.
The Ocean Dreams
Factory gives even completely
inexperienced landlubbers a
chance to discover the fascinating
underwater world. The
whole thing works a bit like
tandem skydiving. Following a
brief introduction to the theory
of diving, the novice, accompanied
by two professionals
with many years’ experience,
dives to a maximum depth of
ten metres. “I’ll be with you
the whole time,” diving instructor
David Gomez grins.
“If I’m not there anymore, it’s
because of the sharks – then
it’s every man for himself anyway.”
Of course there aren’t any
sharks in Adeje’s El Puertito
harbour, but for that there are
seven specimens of the Green
Sea Turtle, which measures
between 40 and 80 centimetres
and is on the list of
endangered Canary species.
The Ocean Dreams Factory
donates ten percent of the
profits from the dives, which
can be booked as incentives,
to the project for the Canary
Islands’ first marine micro-reserve.(www.oceandreamsfactory.com).
And the waters of the biggest
Canary Island are also home to
stable families of resident pilot
whales – an almost unique
phenomenon worldwide. Up
to eight metres long and
weighing as much as 2,500
kilograms, the whales displaying
a characteristic curved dorsal
fin live in groups; there are
about 300 of them between La
Gomera and Tenerife alone,
where they find plenty to feed
on. Squid, one of the pilot
whale’s favourite meals, are in
abundant supply there. Also,
the water temperature between
the islands off the West
African coast stays almost
constant the whole year
round. Boats and catamarans
therefore offer three-hour trips
on which visitors are guaranteed
to sight a whale. DM
72 2/2010