Astronomy tourism at Roque de los Muchachos begins to stir Garafía's housing market

A protected sky that draws ever more travellers

The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, in the municipality of Garafía, is one of Europe's most important astronomical sites thanks to the quality of its sky, protected by law against light pollution. In recent years that scientific prestige has translated into growing astronomy tourism, with visitors coming to watch the stars from viewpoints and accommodation close to the summit.

From empty house to accommodation under the stars

This particular demand has turned old shepherds' cottages and small rural homes around Garafía into tourist accommodation aimed at stargazers, many of them advertised with terraces or viewing platforms set up for telescopes. Tourism sector sources estimate that holiday rental prices for this type of property have risen sharply over the past season.

An opportunity for a heavily depopulated municipality

For a municipality such as Garafía, with one of the lowest population densities in the Canary Islands, the arrival of this particular tourist demand offers an unusual source of income that is encouraging some owners to restore homes that had been shut up for years.

The challenge of not repeating the south's mistakes

The Cabildo of La Palma and tourism officials are keeping watch to ensure that this still emerging trend does not end up reproducing in the north the same tensions between holiday lets and residential housing already seen in the south, in areas such as Puerto Naos.

A comparison with the south of the island

What is beginning to happen in Garafía echoes, on a much smaller scale, what transformed the south of La Palma years ago, where tourism ended up displacing much of the residential rental market. The difference, Cabildo officials note, is that Garafía starts from a far smaller market and a much older population, which could mean the effects, though slower to arrive, prove just as hard to reverse.

The Cabildo's role in future regulation

The Cabildo of La Palma is considering extending to the island's northern municipalities some of the criteria it already applies in the south to regulate holiday lets, with the aim of getting ahead of any tensions before they take hold. Sources at the island authority stress that astronomy tourism, despite its still modest size, is already part of Garafía's medium-term tourism planning.