The Canary Islands denounce overtourism

MADRID: Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Spain’s Canary Islands on Saturday to demand changes to the mass tourism model they say is overwhelming the Atlantic archipelago.

Protesters gathered under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a limit” and began protesting around midday (11:00 GMT), with flag-waving crowds filling the streets of the main towns on all seven islands of the archipelago.

An estimated 57,000 people joined the protests, Spanish media reports said, citing the central government’s representative on the islands.

Singing and whistling, they waved a sea of ​​banners and placards with slogans such as “The Canary Islands are not for sale!” or “A moratorium on tourism,” while others simply said, “Respect my home.”

The protests were organized by about two dozen social and environmental groups who say the overcrowding of tourists perpetuates an economic model that harms local residents and the environment.

They want authorities to limit the number of visitors and have proposed introducing an eco-tax to protect the environment, a moratorium on tourism and restricting the sale of properties to non-residents.

“We are not against tourism,” one female protester, Rosario Correo, told Spanish public television TVE.

“We ask that they change this model, which allows unlimited growth in tourism.”

Last year, 16 million people visited the Canary Islands, more than seven times the population of around 2.2 million, which the collective says is unsustainable given the archipelago’s limited resources.

‘Invaded’

“We are tired of overcrowding, low wages, lack of houses to live in and seeing our country being bought by foreigners because they have the money to buy our grandparents’ land that we cannot afford. ” Longtime teacher Nieves Rodrigues Rivera told AFPTV.

And the constant influx of visitors worsened the housing crisis by driving up rents, says 22-year-old student Antonio Samuel Diaz Garcia.

“We see holiday homes encroaching on our villages, driving up rental prices and making it increasingly difficult for young people like us to leave home,” he told AFPTV.

“We also see that tourism is destroying biodiversity here.”

A large crowd of demonstrators also held parallel demonstrations of support in Madrid and Barcelona, ​​public television said.

Protests against tourism have increased in recent months across Spain, the world’s second most visited country. This has prompted authorities to try to reconcile the interests of locals with a lucrative sector that represents 12.8 percent of the Spanish economy.

Located off the northwestern coast of Africa, the islands are known for their volcanic landscapes and year-round sunshine and attract millions of visitors every year, with four in ten residents working in tourism – a sector that accounts for 36 percent of covers the islands. GDP.

Before the pandemic brought the global travel industry to its knees in 2020, protest movements against overtourism were already active in Spain, especially in Barcelona.

After travel restrictions were lifted, tourism increased and Spain welcomed a record 85.1 million visitors last year.