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Residents of Spain’s Canary Islands have taken to the streets to protest against mass tourism, in a huge demonstration set to disrupt ‘out of office’ bliss for thousands of British holidaymakers.
Tens of thousands are expected to gather on the seven main islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, El Hierro, La Palma, La Gomera and Lanzarote.
Under the slogan ‘Canarias tiene un limite’ (The Canaries has a limit), they are calling on authorities to limit the impact of mass tourism.
This includes reducing the number of short-term rentals and creating more affordable homes for people who live on the islands year-round.
Solidarity protests are also taking place in Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid, where opposition to foreign tourists has grown over the past year.
In 2024, demonstrations swept the Canary Islands as residents lashed out at a festering housing crisis and crumbling infrastructure.
In March, the Canary Islands clocked a record number of tourists, with 1.55 million people visiting that month alone.
Now, protesters say they are tired of an economy built on mass tourism and inequality that prices people out of their homes.
They want the government to switch to a sustainable model that protects the environment and local welfare.
The protests lay bare the sentiment ahead of the busy summer season, as little has been done to tackle the problem.
In October, thousands of anti-tourism protesters marched across the Canary Islands as sunbathing holidaymakers looked on.
In Tenerife, marchers diverted from their expected route and walked across the sand at Troya Beach, one of the most popular in Las Americas, in the south of the island.
They yelled ‘Canarias No Se Vende’ which translates as ‘The Canary Islands Are Not For Sale,’ beat on drums, blew whistles and waved Canary Island flags, while tourists, including Brits, sunned themselves nearby.
Protesters were also heard shouting ‘No hay camas pa’ tanto guiri’ – which translates to ‘There’s not enough beds for so many foreigners.’
One carried a placard that read: ‘Enjoying a day at your pool? That water could be going on food’ while another had a board that said: ‘The Canaries have a limit. More trees, less hotels.’
Initial reports pointed to 2,000 people joining the Tenerife march on Sunday, far less than the number in April when the last anti-mass tourism protests took place in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz.
But protester and expat engineer Brian Harrison, who originally hails from Bridgend in Wales but moved to Tenerife in 1991, insisted the turn out was bigger saying: ‘You can add a zero to that.’
Other anti-tourism marches also took place on Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, El Hierro, and La Palma.
In Gran Canaria, protesters hit the streets in Maspalomas, in the south of the island, where most of the hotels British tourists stay at are based.
‘Several thousand’ people turned up to vent their anger at politicians for failing to tackle the problems campaign groups associate with too many tourists, including affordable housing and environmental problems
Some walked behind a large banner that said in Spanish: ‘We’re foreigners in our own land.’
Tourists watched on from hotel rooftops as the protestors walked past them, with reports that locals had taken the opportunity to raise their middle fingers to holidaymakers, who blew kisses back at them.
One protestor was filmed being put into handcuffs as onlookers taking part in the march shouted at officers, although it was not immediately clear why the arrest had taken place.
The resort of Puerto del Carmen, which is popular with both Brits and Irish tourists, was picked as the centre stage for Lanzarote’s protest.
But a local paper described the turnout as being ‘disappointing’, saying: ‘It hasn’t aroused the same interest as the one held on April 20.’
Before the protests got under way, organisers said their regional and island governors had been guilty of ‘complete inaction’ since the demonstrations six months ago.
They said the number of tourists the islands attract, 16 million last year, with 17 million expected to visit the region this year, is unsustainable.
Their demands include the introduction of a tourist tax, the paralysation of two macro hotel projects in Tenerife they say are illegal and limits on the purchase of property by non-residents.
Meanwhile, one of the speakers at a rally held at the end of the Tenerife march said: ‘We need less hire car, improvements in public transport and we need to stop being so many people per square kilometre.
‘Each new golf course, each new hotel and each attack on our environment will mean that there will be more people who will join the fight and turn the pain that it causes us into the fuel that drives us to continue this battle.’
Ahead of today’s marches Mr Harrison, who is actively involved in environmental campaigning had said: ‘We’re taking our protest to the holiday heartlands this time round and not the island capitals to educate visitors to the fact there’s serious problems here, but also because it poses the biggest nightmare to our political leaders that anti mass-tourism demos are going on in tourist areas.
‘These politicians go to tourism trade shows around Europe promoting the islands as a paradise and the last thing they want is something like this.
‘It was a big decision to do this because none of the 70 groups that made up the 20A movement behind these new protests is against tourism or say there should be no tourism but it had to be taken because nothing’s changed since the last ones.
‘If anything things have gone backwards with new tourism projects being approved and work on hotels we’ve flagged up as illegal carrying on and the developers being given more rights.
‘Sunday’s protests are going to be noticed by British and Irish tourists holidaying in the Canaries because we’re taking our fight to them and want to show them the Canary Islands are not the paradise they’ve been sold and there are consequences of them being here in the quantities they are.’
Half a dozen activists went on hunger strike outside a church in the northern Tenerife town of La Laguna ahead of the last mass anti-tourism protests earlier this year.
It began on April 11 and was called off after 20 days.
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