A British expat living in Tenerife has said authorities need to do two main things to stop locals from hating tourists. Local residents are gearing up for a major protest against mass tourism on the Canary Islands this weekend.
Demonstrators will take to the streets of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and La Palma on Saturday April 20. Under the slogan of “The Canaries have a limit”, protesters will demand changes to the current economic tourist model, which they argue is unsustainable.
The upcoming protests follow hot on the heels of a decision by six members of Canarias Se Agota (Canaries Sold Out) to start an indefinite hunger strike last week.
Sharon Backhouse is the founder of GeoTenerife, which organises sustainable educational science travel trips to the Spanish island. The British businesswoman spends her time between the UK and Tenerife.
She insisted that locals do not hate tourists but that things had to change quickly.
She argued for a better financial deal for those working in tourism and the need for foreign investors to pay their fair share of taxes.
She told The I”s Graham Keeley: “I think you must pay a fair wage and have contracts which cannot be zero hours. It cannot be foreign investors who come in and pay little tax and drain all that money away.”
The entrepreneur added: “If you have people who have a job [in tourism] but have to live in a caravan because they are not earning enough money then something has gone seriously wrong.”
Spanish expats living in London are also staging their own protests against mass tourism in solidarity with the Canarians.
The demonstration will take place at the London Eye, with live coverage from Express.co.uk on the day. The Canaries are a hugely popular destination for UK tourists, who account for 5.7 million arrivals last year.
This is over a third of the 14.1 million visitors who travelled to the islands during 2023. Tourism is a major industry for the islands, generating around 35 percent of its GDP and the protests have caused concern to local politicians.
Fernando Clavijo, the Canary Islands regional president, said on Sunday that the tourism model should be reviewed.
He added that authorities were considering introducing a tourist tax seen elsewhere in Spain – one of the key demands of the protesters.
