A woman uses a megaphone during a demonstration for a change in the tourism model in the Canary Islands (Picture: Reuters)
Tens of thousands of people hit the streets in Tenerife today to protest against tourism on the island.
Chanting and whistling, they waved placards emblazoned with slogans reading ‘The Canary Islands are not up for sale!’ and ‘Respect my home’.
One demonstrator said: ‘It’s not a message against the tourist, but against a tourism model that doesn’t benefit this land and needs to be changed.’
Protests also took place in the other islands in the archipelago, including Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, with support demos scheduled for the Spanish mainland in cities like Malaga and Madrid as well as London and Berlin.
The Canary Islands protests were organised under the slogan ‘Canarias Tiene Un Limite’ which in English translates as ‘The Canary Islands have a limit.”
The backdrop to the demos is an ongoing hunger strike six men and women began on April 11 outside a church in the northern Tenerife town of La Laguna.
Speaking ahead of the start of today’s demonstrations, a spokesman for protest platform Canarias Se Agota, which the hunger strikers are affiliated to, said: ‘Today, April 20, marks the 10th day of the hunger strike.
‘Today we cannot forget these people who are putting their lives at risk for our Earth.
‘Their determination inspires, their bravery moves us, their sacrifice reminds us that this struggle is everyone’s and for everyone.
‘We are writing a new chapter in the history of our islands, a chapter marked by the unwavering perseverance of those who bravely defend our home.
‘Today the Canary Islands will scream and fight, and tomorrow it will continue to do so.’
A girl displays a sign reading ‘My island, my future’ (Picture: Reuters)
Protest groups including Canarias Se Agota, which in English translates literally as ‘The Canary Islands are Exhausted’, want the authorities to paralyse two tourist projects (Picture: Reuters)
Another placard reads ‘For a sustainable model’ (Picture: Reuters)
Protest groups including Canarias Se Agota, which in English translates literally as ‘The Canary Islands are Exhausted’, want the authorities to paralyse two tourist projects including one which involves the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife’s last virgin beaches.
They are also seeking a commitment from regional politicians to change the tourist model and protect islands like Tenerife from the worst excesses of mass tourism, including sea pollution, traffic gridlock and lack of cheap affordable housing linked to the pushing-up of property prices because of Airbnb-style holiday lets.
Other demands include the protection of natural spaces, a tourist tax and better working conditions for hotel cleaners, who joined today’s protest in Santa Cruz as they insisted to local press: ‘We are not slaves.’
The archipelago of 2.2 million people was visited by nearly 14 million foreign tourists in 2023, up 13% from the previous year, according to official data.
Authorities in the islands are concerned about the impact on locals.
A draft law expected to pass this year toughening the rules on short lets follows complaints from residents priced out of the housing market.
Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo said on Friday he felt ‘proud’ that the region was a leading Spanish tourist destination, but acknowledged that more controls were needed as the sector continues to grow.
‘We can’t keep looking away. Otherwise, hotels will continue to open without any control,’ he told a press conference.
In the Gran Canaria capital Las Palmas, marchers carried banners in Spanish which said: ‘It’s not phobia, it’s love for my land.’
A woman protestor held up another which said: ‘Fourteen million tourists a year but 36 per cent of Canarians at risk of poverty.’
People march on a street during a demonstration for a change in the tourism model in the Canary Islands (Picture: Reuters)
A protester holds a sign reading ‘I have nowhere to go when my earth will be destroyed’ (Picture: AFP via Getty)
Tens of thousands of demonstrators hit the streets across Spain’s Canary Islands on Saturday (Picture: AFP via Getty)
One of the other banners exhibited by protestors said: ‘The Canary Islands government is an estate agency.’
Another said: ‘With so much Airbnb where are we going to live?’
Paula Rincon told local press: ‘It pains me that Canarians cannot afford to live in their own neighbourhoods.’
Insisting the current tourism model led to ‘more people paying lower prices and badly-built hotels that destroyed beaches and protected areas’ she added: ‘I don’t know why we aspire to so many numbers when this doesn’t filter down to the rest of the population.
‘The current system doesn’t benefit us, it impoverishes us.’
The protests in the Canary Islands are mostly taking place away from the main tourist areas, which in Tenerife and Gran Canaria are in the south of the islands.
Some British holidaymakers have shown their support for the issues raised by the islanders but others have accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.
The Canary Islands’ tourism minister Jessica de Leon urged British holidaymakers not to cancel their holidays ahead of today’s demos.
Canary Islands regional president Fernando Clavijo initially admitted he was worried tourists might be put off coming to the area, before softening his message last week and describing the April 20 protests as an opportunity to ‘revise’ the current tourism model.
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Jorge Marichal, president of regional hotel association ASHOTEL, has claimed tourists were ringing establishments to ask whether it was safe to come.
He has also insisted ‘non-regulated’ holiday lets are a big problem and the reason there is less control than there should be on the numbers of tourists in places like Tenerife.
Messages in English left on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month included ‘My misery your paradise’ and ‘Average salary in Canary Islands is 1,200 euros’.
In an apparent UK backlash, a response left in English on a wall next to a ‘Tourists go home’ message said: ‘F**k off, we pay your wages.’
Protest platform Canarias Se Agota has insisted it has nothing to do with the graffiti that has appeared in parts of Tenerife over recent weeks – and has accused regional politicians of blaming them of tourism-phobia as part of a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign.
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