Announced in London yesterday by the Canary Islands' Minister of Tourism, Jessica de León, alongside Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Director General for Tourism Planning, and Isabel Florido, Environmental Sustainability Officer at Turismo de Islas Canarias, REGNEXT aims to make tourism a direct contributor to environmental restoration and community wellbeing through voluntary contributions.

The announcement comes as destinations across Europe increasingly introduce visitor taxes to help manage tourism and fund sustainability programmes. Instead, the Canary Islands is proposing a voluntary model that enables travellers, travel companies and climate funds to support regeneration projects across the islands.

Welcoming the initiative, Manuel Butler, Director of the Spanish Tourist Office UK, said:

"The Spanish Tourist Office welcomes this innovative approach, which replaces obligation with voluntary contributions to well-designed sustainability projects that will benefit both visitors to the Canary Islands and local communities. By supporting tangible environmental and social initiatives, REGNEXT will help protect and restore natural spaces, reduce emissions, improve quality of life for residents and enhance the visitor experience."

REGNEXT has been designed as a digital platform that connects contributors directly with environmental and social regeneration projects across the Canary Islands. It ensures complete transparency and traceability, guaranteeing that contributions are directed to specific projects rather than a general fund.

Visitors, travel companies, foundations and other organisations will be able to make voluntary contributions through a simple online system. Users can browse approved projects, choose those they wish to support and follow their progress.

Each project will include information on its objectives, budget, implementation timetable and expected outcomes. Contributors will also have access to regular progress reports and independently verifiable data showing environmental and social impacts, from restored habitats and reduced emissions to strengthened climate resilience and community initiatives.

Among the first travel companies participating are easyJet holidays, Jet2.com, Jet2holidays and TUI, alongside a growing number of international tourism businesses committed to sustainable tourism.

Speaking at the launch, Jessica de León, Minister of Tourism for the Canary Islands, said:

"We are driving a profound transformation of our tourism model with a very clear objective: to ensure tourism delivers greater benefits for the people of the Canary Islands. REGNEXT is one of the key tools that will help us achieve that ambition.

"For many years we have worked to reduce tourism's environmental impact through greater energy efficiency and lower emissions. Now it is time to go one step further and create a tourism model capable of generating a positive impact on the destination.

"REGNEXT has been created to make tourism an active force for environmental and social regeneration. Through voluntary contributions from visitors, businesses and climate foundations, we can ensure that part of the value tourism generates is reinvested directly into restoring ecosystems, strengthening climate resilience and improving the communities that make our destination so special.

"Most importantly, this places the people of the Canary Islands at the heart of our tourism policy while building a fairer, more sustainable tourism model that delivers greater benefits for everyone."

Projects supported through REGNEXT will include habitat restoration, biodiversity conservation, emissions reduction, climate adaptation, landscape improvement and community initiatives that improve quality of life across the islands such as affordable housing and food banks .

For UK travellers, REGNEXT offers a new way to support the destination they visit without increasing the cost of their holiday through a compulsory tax, while giving travel companies a transparent mechanism for investing in measurable environmental and social outcomes.

Alongside REGNEXT, the Canary Islands Government outlined wider reforms designed to create a better-balanced tourism model, including new legislation regulating holiday rentals.

The Sustainable Regulation of Tourist Use of Residential Properties Act, introduced last December, has already halted the registration of new holiday rental accommodation in 85 of the Canary Islands' 88 municipalities while local authorities determine, through democratic planning processes, how many properties can be sustainably accommodated and where they should be located.

Around 1,500 holiday rental properties have already voluntarily left the Canary Islands Tourism Register, helping achieve what the Government describes as a "soft landing" for the sector.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Director General for Tourism Planning, Training and Promotion, said:

"Our objective has never been to eliminate holiday rentals but to ensure they develop in a sustainable and properly planned way. For the first time, local authorities will be able to decide where this type of accommodation is appropriate, based on planning, environmental assessment and the needs of local communities.

"The early results are encouraging. We have seen a voluntary reduction in registered properties while creating the conditions for a more balanced tourism model that protects housing, respects urban environments and provides greater certainty for residents, visitors and the tourism industry alike."

Rodríguez also outlined forthcoming reforms covering active tourism businesses and the Canary Islands' first regulatory framework for campsites and camping facilities, aimed at improving quality standards, supporting employment and protecting the islands' natural environment.

For all press enquiries contact Jessica Harvey Taylor on Jessica.harvey@tourspain.es or the Spanish Tourist Office’s PR agency LOTUS on spain@wearelotus.co.uk.