Lanzarote and Tenerife send plea to British holidaymakers ahead of anti-tourism protests

Lanzarote and Tenerife have made a plea to British holidaymakers amid fears of widespread cancellations due to anti-tourism protests. The head of tourism in the Canary Islands, Jessica de Leon, has reassured Britons that they are still welcome on the islands despite planned demonstrations.

Today, thousands of people will join protests in the Canary Islands and demand a re-evaluation of the Spanish archipelago’s tourism sector. “It is still safe to visit the Canary Islands, and we are happy to welcome you,” assured de Leon in an interview with The Telegraph.

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She acknowledged the frustrations but argued it was “unfair to blame tourism”. Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands, agreed with De Leon, suggesting that some activists were showing “a hint of tourist phobia”.

“People who come here and spend their money should not be criticized or insulted. We are playing with our main source of income,” Clavijo warned. However, Gabriel Gonzalez, a councilor of the far-left Podemos party in the Tenerife resort of Adeje, responded: “We feel that we do not live from tourism; it is tourism that lives from us.”

Nestor Marrero, secretary of ATAN, an ecology group in Tenerife, suggested a different approach: “The number of tourists must be reduced. We should be aiming for higher quality visitors, not people in all-inclusive resorts who don’t leave the hotel or interact in any way with locals and our culture,” reports Birmingham Live.

The year before, the Canary Islands welcomed a whopping 13.9 million visitors, while the islands themselves were home to only 2.2 million inhabitants. Data from Spain’s National Institute of Statistics shows that as many as 33.8 percent of the local population are at risk of poverty or social exclusion – the highest in any area except Andalusia.

This week, Clavijo assured reporters: “All the actions this government has taken are based on a review of this model,” adding: “The tourism model in the Canary Islands has been successful, but obviously, as with everything, there are things that could be perfected.”