The Tourism Chair was established six years ago with the aim of creating the first major collaborative network among tourism researchers at the University of La Laguna (ULL), thanks to financial support from the CajaCanarias Foundation and Ashotel. Over these years, the Chair has become a benchmark for promoting training, research, and knowledge transfer in tourism, through its connections with networks of public and private institutions. However, we are now entering a phase in which we must develop a greater capacity to generate knowledge for the benefit of our community. We believe that the Canary Islands tourism sector and the university have reached a sufficient level of maturity to take on this complex challenge.

We are at a moment for reflection, where the Canary Islands' tourism strategy must shift towards a model less dependent on natural resources and the weather, increasingly focusing on knowledge, innovation, and sustainability. This is the only way the most dynamic sectors of industry and services in Europe have been able to survive in the face of growing competition from countries with lower labor costs.

The Canary Islands have been pioneers and even leaders in the more traditional tourism model, and now we have the opportunity to be pioneers and lead the way in new, knowledge-intensive tourism models—knowledge that is more open and shared through networks. A model in which the university must play a more significant role.