More than 60,000 Canarians – 130,000, according to the organizers – took to the streets yesterday in the eight Canary Islands to demand a change in the mass tourism model that is putting pressure on the territory and to demand a better distribution of the wealth generated by the sector. “The Canary Islands do not live on tourism. The living tourism of the Canaries” was one of the slogans heard yesterday at the mobilizations, one of the most numerous that can be remembered in the archipelago and similar to those experienced in 2014, when Repsol went alone apply for permits to do oil prospecting in waters near the islands.
Old people, young people, families, retirees, workers, unemployed… Yesterday the Canaries joined the cry of “Canaries has a limit” with hundreds of banners and slogans like “La agüita pa’ las papas, no pa’l golf” or “The Canaries are not for sale, they love and defend themselves”.
The mobilizations also had replicas in Madrid, Barcelona, ??Malaga and Granada, in addition to London and Berlin. Precisely, the United Kingdom and Germany are the two main markets sending tourists to the Canary Islands. Media from both countries picked up on the mobilizations yesterday, something that worries politicians and businessmen of the islands, who fear the impact they could have on a sector that accounts for 35.5% of the Canary Islands’ GDP and 40% of the ‘ occupation
From the organizing platform of the mobilisations, Les Canaries are running out, to which numerous social and environmental groups have been added, it has been made clear that behind the demonstrations there is no tourism phobia or rejection of foreign visitors, but that it is about giving a touch of attention to the political representatives. The demonstrators are asking for a control on the arrival of tourists to stop the “excessive growth” and from there move towards a “more diversified and sustainable” economic model. They also demand from the rulers a better management of resources. They blame them for the situation in the islands.
The organizers criticize the fact that the number of tourists has not stopped growing in recent years, reaching 16.2 million people in 2023, and record turnover levels have been reached, with 20,000 million euros at the end of last financial year, while the Canary Islands population is at the bottom of the State in terms of wages, it supports one of the highest unemployment rates in Spain, with 16%, and registers one of the country’s highest rates of people in risk of poverty or social exclusion, with 33.8%.
The difficulties in finding a home and the high rental prices – partly due to the growth of tourist apartments – are more complaints from the Canaries, who also suffer from the collapse of roads due to traffic, problems with sanitation and water supply for lack of planning and the saturation of public services, such as health.
“We can’t take it anymore, people can’t keep coming as if this were an infinite area”, said the spokesman for the mobilization held on the island of Tenerife, Felipe Ravina, environmental activist and author of the documentary Save Tenerife. This island is the one that registered the largest mobilization, with almost 40,000 people, and where it took the fuse of the social discontent of the Canaries due to two luxury tourist projects that are underway, the hotel La Tejita and Cuna del Alma, that they are required to stop.
