Thousands of Canary Islanders took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago today to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism and demand their politicians take action.
Demonstrators packed into Weyler Square in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz, the start point for a march on the Brit-popular holiday island, just before midday with banners including one that said: ‘You enjoy we suffer’ in English.
Others said: ‘Where is the money from tourism?’ and ‘Tourist moratorium now.’
They waved Canary Islands’ flags and blew vuvuzelas to make a deafening noise.
Protests also got underway at the same time 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.’
Demonstrators packed into Weyler Square in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz, the start point for a march on the Brit-popular holiday island
A woman raises her fist as she pounds the streets in protest against the levels of tourism in the holiday-isles
Canary Islanders took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago today to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism
The huge crowd massed just before midday with banners including one that said: ‘You enjoy we suffer’ in English
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
Official sources put the number of demonstrators in Tenerife at midday at around 10,000 people
One proposed project involves the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife’s last virgin beaches
Campaigners have been quick to distance themselves from anti-tourist graffiti which appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month
At the beginning of this week a picture was published in local press showing the words ‘Go Home’ on a hire car in Tenerife
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.’
Campaigners have been quick to distance themselves from anti-tourist graffiti which appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month.
At the beginning of this week a picture was published in local press showing the words ‘Go Home’ on a hire car in Tenerife.
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
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
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 estimate for how many people attended had increased to 15,000 by 1pm local time with some predictions it could end up surpassing the 50,000 mark
The islands are threatened by 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
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.’
Official sources put the number of demonstrators in Tenerife at midday at around 10,000 people, although that estimate had increased to 15,000 by 1pm local time with some predictions it could end up surpassing the 50,000 mark.
An estimated 1,000 people started the protest march that began just after midday today from a park in Lanzarote’s capital Arrecife.
Many more subsequently joined it and some local reports put the number of demonstrators at ‘at least’ 5,000 by the time it reached a city beach called Playa El Reducto.
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.’
Protesters waved Canary Islands’ flags and blew vuvuzelas to make a deafening noise
Graffiti in Tenerife tells tourists to go home amid a spate of anti-Brit graffiti in the holiday isles
Another piece of graffiti across a bench urges holidaymakers to stay away from stunning spot
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.’
More than 1,000 people were said to have joined the protest march in Fuerteventura by just after midday local time.
Protestor Xiomara Cruz, who took part in the march in Gran Canaria, said ahead of its start: ‘They made us believe that in the Canary Islands we live from tourism and what we want is the right of islanders to live in their land.’
She called the protests a ‘rallying cry from a population tired of seeing how our islands are being destroyed.’
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.’
A man holds up I sign showing aeroplanes flooding through an hourglass – with the caption saying that the islands’ ‘time has a limit’
An estimated 1,000 people started the protest march that began just after midday today from a park in Lanzarote’s capital Arrecife
Protesters are seeking a commitment from regional politicians to change the tourist model and protect islands like Tenerife
Many more subsequently joined it and some local reports put the number of demonstrators at ‘at least’ 5,000 by the time it reached a city beach called Playa El Reducto
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.
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*** off, we pay your wages.’
Protesters line the streets in Canary Islands as they vent their fury about mass tourism
Protestors flood through the streets of the holiday islands as they express their anger
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.
It comes as British holidaymakers have reportedly been calling hotels in Tenerife to ask if they will be safe amid a series of mass protests planned across the islands by activists unsettled by extensive arrivals of foreign holidaymakers.
Tech worker Ivan Cerdeña Molina, 36, helped organise the protest as part of his role at local conservation group ATAN (Asociación Tinerfeña de Amigos de la Naturaleza).
He told MailOnline previously: ‘It’s a crisis, we have to change things urgently, people are living in their cars and even in caves, and locals can’t eat, drink or live well.
‘Airbnb and Booking.com are like a cancer that is consuming the island bit by bit.
‘The benefits of the industry are not trickling down to everyday people, whose salaries have not increased in years, the quality of life here is collapsing.’
Ivan was born and raised in El Medano, a once quiet town about a 20 minute-drive east of the most popular tourist resort of Los Cristianos.
The tourism minister of the Canary Islands has urged British travellers to spend their holidays in the archipelago despite mounting protests against overtourism.
Tech worker Ivan Cerdeña Molina said ‘people are living in their cars and even in caves, and locals can’t eat, drink or live well’ due to the crisis
A protestor speaks to the crowds as a sign in front reads: ‘In the Canary Islands, tourists use up to six times more water than any resident’
The placards and angry residents poured through the streets after the level of tourism pushed them to their limit
Jessica de León insisted that in spite of reports of booking cancellations and fears of holiday disruptions, ‘it is still safe to visit the Canary Islands, and we are delighted to welcome you’.
She told The Telegraph that while she understood the protestors’ cause for concern, it was ‘unfair to blame tourism’ on the issues facing the Canary Islands.
Last week, activists also went on hunger strike as part of a protest against the effects of mass tourism on island life.
Nearly a dozen campaigners for a more sustainable type of tourism went ahead with their threat outside a church in the historic city of La Laguna.
The hunger strikers want the authorities to halt two tourist projects, one involving the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife’s last virgin beaches called La Tejita.
In La Palma, residents organised an event called ‘Punktagorda Foresta Rock’.
They told MailOnline they plan to converse, not protest, about the issues.
‘It’s really just taking care of our home and the island and the people and setting healthy boundaries while making needs crystal clear,’ Louis Slabbert wrote on Twitter/X.
Sun-seeking Britons have long favoured Tenerife as a holiday destination
Tensions have recently broken out between British holidaymakers and fed up residents of the canary island
Flyers like this slamming holidaymakers are being stuck to buildings all over Tenerife
Ms de León expressed sympathy with the concerns, telling The Telegraph: ‘The problem is that the last five years have seen an average of 3,000 homes built on the islands, when demand is for 20,000.
‘Last year just 200 public housing units were built.’
Protestors attributed blame to the governance of the archipelago in their manifesto, writing: ‘If we have reached this point it is because we have no other choice and because of the serious faults that our bad Government of the Canary Islands is committing.’
‘They are putting our present and our future and that of the new generations at risk,’ they added.
‘Do not underestimate us, because we are many people. We are all of the Canary Islands, a whole movement.
‘Without our work, our votes, you are nothing and nobody and you are not for what you are doing with the Canary Islands.
‘We say enough is enough, not in our name,’ warns the manifesto, read by ‘Canarias se exhausta’ members Víctor Martín and Isora Mesa.
The Canary Islands have largely built their economy around tourism, welcoming around 12.3million visitors each year.
Mr Molina (right) said: ‘Airbnb and Booking.com are like a cancer that is consuming the island bit by bit’
The holiday resort made headline news last month after a series of graffiti messages were scrawled on walls and buildings, reading ‘tourists go home’
This flyer stating ‘it could by my home, but it’s your airbnb’ has been posted on a holiday let
In 2023 alone, foreign travellers spent more than 20.3billion euros in the region, accounting for a fifth of spending throughout Spain.
The direct and indirect contribution of tourism to the archipelago stands at around 35 per cent.
The volcanic islands were particularly badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions placed on travel as a result.
The Canary Islands are the third most internationally visited region in Spain.
Speaking to MailOnline during the first big getaway over Easter, residents on Tenerife said ‘enough is enough’ as they called for a moratorium on the industry, along with a tourist tax and stricter controls.
It comes as a wave of new anti-tourism graffiti has popped up near resorts over the past few days, with messages reading ‘tourists go home’ and ‘too many guiris’.
Guiri is a Spanish slang word for foreigner, which is often used in a negative way to describe northern European or American visitors and expats.
One poster taped to a wall said: ‘Locals are forced to move out and YOU are responsible for that… digital nomads you are NOT welcome here.’
But it seems some Brits are fighting back, with a message in English scribbled next to one of the slogans saying: ‘F**k off, we pay your wages!’
Tensions are rising on the island as more and more people join calls for restraints on tourism. On Tuesday this week, a protest is planned in Santa Cruz, dubbed ‘Salvar La Tejida’ (Save La Teijda).
Campaigners will hold a press conference laying out their demands before holding a march with banners and signs.
Later this month, on April 20, a second huge protest is being planned by a string of environmental and social groups, again in the capital.
A poster for the event says the Canary Islands ‘has a limit’ and that protesters will be marching for ‘conservation of natural spaces, a tourist moratorium, and tougher regulation for foreigners buying property.’
The main gripe among locals is the rising costs of renting and buying homes, as landlords continue to buy up Airbnbs and tourist lets, reducing supply and pushing up prices.
Local painter Vicky Colomer, 63, told MailOnline: ‘I feel like a foreigner here, I don’t feel comfortable anymore, it’s like everything is made for British and German tourists who just want to drink cheap beer, lay in the sun and eat burgers and chips.
‘We need higher quality tourists who actually want to experience our culture and food and respect our nature.
‘This was a paradise but now it’s not and it makes me angry. We must reduce the number of flights and visitors and focus on bringing higher quality people.’
She added: ‘There are hundreds of caravans who park up illegally and leave rubbish all over the place.
‘Near my home a few weeks ago foreign tourists put on a rave with a DJ booth and speakers in the middle of a field, that is not acceptable.’
She added that young people are increasingly tired of being unable to find decent work.
‘They study for years and go to university but the only jobs offered to them here is in a hotel or a restaurant or bar, so all our young talent has to move away to the mainland if they want to pursue a proper career, it’s not right.’
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