UK holidaymakers soaking up some autumn sun in the Canary Islands this week got more than they bargained for amid protests from locals insisting they ‘go home’.
The demonstration in Tenerife was one of the largest against tourism to the islands, with 20 groups rallying behind the motto ‘Canary Islands have a limit’, the Mirror reports. The picturesque spot have seen a rise in visitor numbers, leading to locals appealing with officials to crack down on tourism.
Protesters are concerned over escalating housing prices driving locals out, which many attribute directly to the influx of holidaymakers. During these protests, 32-year-old Sarah Lopez from Gran Canaria said: “We need a change in the tourist model so it leaves richness here, a change so it values what this land has because it is beautiful.”
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But as demonstrators marched with banners emblazoned with messages like ‘The Canaries Don’t Live off Tourism’, some British holidaymakers appeared unperturbed – with one casually browsing on his phone while another cheekily flashed a peace sign at the camera.
One protester’s sign read ‘Enjoying a day at your pool? That water could be going on food’ and others declared ‘Macrotourism destroys Canary Islands’ and ‘The Canaries have a limit. More trees, less hotels.’
These protests mark one of the largest demonstrations against tourism to date, with the Spanish government reporting that 8,000 people took part last weekend.
This comes as the Spanish National Statistics Institute revealed that 9.9 million tourists flocked to the Canary Islands between January and September this year, a 10.3 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
The Canary Islands aren’t alone in facing a surge of protests recently, with other popular Spanish holiday hotspots including Barcelona, Mallorca and Malaga also experiencing pushback against high tourism rates.
But it seems change is on the horizon for the Canary Islands, as the regional government has proposed a law that looks set to pass, introducing stricter rules on short-term lets.
Under the new law, new build properties will be prohibited from offering short-term lets, and property owners will be given five years to comply with the new regulations.
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