James Holt
Sun 20 October 2024
-Credit: (Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)
Anti-tourism protesters stormed beaches in the Canary Islands and surrounded sunbathing holidaymakers on Sunday (October 20).
Thousands pounded the streets of Spain urging change to the current tourism model affecting the lives of residents. Simultaneous protests took place in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and El Hierro as residents voiced their frustration with soaring housing costs they blame on high numbers of foreign visitors and holiday rentals.
Pictures showed locals wielding placards, with protesters covering a beach in Tenerife as demonstrations in their hundreds, occupying the sands as people watched on from loungers.
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Campaign groups vowed 'this is only the start' as tourism hotspots such as Playa Las Americas, Corralejo, Puerto del Carmen and Maspalomas filled with furious crowds.
Crowds stormed beaches in Tenerife -Credit:Anadolu via Getty Images
They were the biggest protests on the islands since a large-scale demonstration on April 20, where 60,000 people protested across all eight islands. British tourists make up the largest group heading to the sunshine of the island chain, with around 5.7 million jetting to the region last year alone.
The demonstrations aim to demand changes to a tourism model that residents argue is putting unbearable pressure on the islands' resources and infrastructure.
In Tenerife, the protest took place in Playa de las Américas, while Corralejo hosted the protest in Fuerteventura, and Maspalomas in Gran Canaria, with all demonstrations beginning at midday.
One of the main protests was staged at Troya Beach in Tenerife, where holidaymakers were disrupted by the protesters shouting slogans such as 'More tourists, more misery' and blowing whistles as they walked along the shoreline.
Thousands took part in the protest -Credit:Anadolu via Getty Images
The marches have prompted the British Foreign Office to issue a warning to Brits in the Canary Islands over the risk of 'unrest and violence' breaking out during the protests.
The Foreign Office warned: "Political gatherings or marches can take place with little or no warning, particularly in cities. While most demonstrations are peaceful, there is a risk of unrest or violence.
"If you’re near areas where demonstrations are taking place, be aware of what is happening around you and move away if there are signs of disorder."
UK tourists in Canary Islands warned of protests at holiday hotspots this weekend
Liv Clarke
Sat 19 October 2024 at 8:56 am GMT-6·2-min read
-Credit: (Image: AP)
UK holidaymakers in the Canary Islands this half term are warned of major protests against mass tourism taking place across the islands this weekend. Demonstrations are set to be held at popular tourist spots, including Playa Las Americas, Corralejo, Puerto del Carmen and Maspalomas on October 20.
Protests are expected to take place in other Spanish cities at the same time, including Barcelona, Valencia, Granada and Madrid. There is even a demonstration planned in Berlin. The demonstrations coincide with the start of the October half-term for many families across the UK.
The protests are part of a “20-0” movement, sparked by concerns over the impact of mass tourism on the islands. Demonstrations were first held back in April this year, with more than 200,000 people taking part across the Canary Islands and other cities in Spain, local news site Canarian Weekly reports.
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Demonstrators called for a shift from mass-tourism, arguing that quality of life for locals hasn’t improved while flight numbers and hotel occupancy soars. But organisers of the latest protests say “the situation has worsened” since April.
Protests were previously held back in April on the Canary Islands -Credit:AP
However, the organisers stress that they are not anti-tourism or anti-tourists, but simply want a more sustainable tourism model which prioritises the wellbeing of residents and protection of the environment. According to Canarian Weekly, organisers expect “a large turnout”, particularly in Tenerife, and “extra police will be deployed to ensure that there is no trouble at any of the demonstrations”.
It states that the protests will begin at midday on Sunday. They will take place at the following locations in the Canary Islands:
Tenerife: CC Metropolis, Las Americas
Gran Canaria: Expomeloneras, Maspalomas
Lanzarote: Plaza de Las Naciones, Los Pocillos, Puerto del Carmen
Fuerteventura: Avenida Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Corralejo
La Palma: Calle La Carrilla, Los Llanos de Aridane
El Hierro: Calle Doctor Quintero, Valverde
Thousands protest in Spain's Canary Islands against mass tourism
Nicolas Kirilowits with Daniel Silva in Madrid
Sun 20 October 2024
Waving white, blue and yellow flags of the Canary Islands, chanting and whistling protesters slow-marched by tourists sitting in outdoor terraces in Playa de las America in Tenerife before they rallied on the beach (DESIREE MARTIN) (DESIREE MARTIN/AFP/AFP)
Thousands of flag-waving demonstrators hit the streets across Spain's Canary Islands on Sunday to demand restrictions to the mass tourism they say is overwhelming their Atlantic archipelago.
Rallying under the slogan "The Canary Islands have a limit", demonstrators began marching at midday in tourist hotspots across all of the archipelago's seven main islands.
Protesters gathered outside a convention centre in Maspalomas on the island of Gran Canaria, the only water park on the island of Fuerteventura, and the nightlife district in Playa de las America on Tenerife's southwestern tip.
Waving white, blue and yellow flags of the Canary Islands, chanting and whistling protesters slow-marched by tourists sitting in outdoor terraces in Playa de las America before they rallied on the beach.
"This beach is ours," they chanted as tourists sitting on sunbeds under parasol shades looked on.
The demonstration followed large protests held in April in town squares across the archipelago against a model of mass tourism critics say favours investors at the expense of the environment, and that prices local residents out of housing and forces them into precarious jobs.
"The tourist sector is bringing poverty, unemployment and misery to the Canary Islands," Eugenio Reyes Naranjo, the spokesman for the Ben Magec-Ecologists in Action environmental group which has played a leading role in protests, told AFP at the rally in Gran Canaria.
Holding placards reading "The Canaries are not for sale" and "Enough is enough", demonstrators called for limits on tourist numbers, a crackdown on holiday apartments and curbs on what they describe as uncontrolled development.
Around 10,000 people took part in the protests across the archipelago, with the largest rally drawing some 6,500 people in Tenerife, local official said.
- 'Get nothing in return' -
The islands, which lie off the northwestern coast of Africa, are known for their volcanic landscapes and year-round sunshine that make them a popular destination for northern European sunseekers.
Last year a record 16.2 million people visited the Canary Islands, a 10.9 percent increase over 2022 and more than seven times its population of some 2.2 million, a level demonstrators argue is unsustainable for the archipelago's limited resources. The islands are on track to smash this record this year.
The biggest markets for the islands are Britain and Germany, although they are also a popular destination for people from mainland Spain.
Some four out of 10 residents work in tourism, which accounts for 36 percent of the islands' gross domestic product, official figures show.
But many locals complain they do not share in the wealth generated by the tourism sector which they say goes mainly to large firms from outside of the archipelago.
"The wealth generated in the archipelago goes all over Europe, the people of Gran Canaria get nothing in return. It's foreign companies that come here, and we don't see the money anywhere," Adrian Souza, a 32-year-old protester at the rally in Maspalomas, told AFP.
- 'So much construction' -
One in three people living in the Canaries are at risk of poverty and 65 percent struggle to make ends meet, according to the latest figures from the European Anti-Poverty Network that were presented on Tuesday in the Canary's regional parliament.
Some tourists cheered the demonstrators as they went by.
"The coastline is being damaged by so much construction. I totally agree with them," said Rosalia Magalilo, a 55-year-old tourist from Switzerland who said she had been coming to Gran Canaria for 30 years.
Anti-tourism protests have multiplied in recent months across Spain, the world's second-most visited country after France, prompting authorities to try to reconcile the interests of locals and a lucrative sector that accounts for 12.8 percent of Spain's economy.
Barcelona city hall has said it will ban all holiday apartments by 2028 while the southern city of Seville plans to cut off the water supply to properties let out to tourists without a licence.
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