THOUSANDS of people took to the streets today in Tenerife to protest against mass tourism and demand restrictions on holidaymakers.
The anti-tourist hordes filled a square in the capital brandishing banners including some that read “You enjoy we suffer” in English.
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Others read: “Where is the money from tourism?” and “‘Tourist moratorium now.”
More than 15,000 people waved Canary Islands’ flags and blew vuvuzelas to make a deafening noise in Santa Cruz.
Protests also took place at the same time on other Canary islands including Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.
More demonstrations are scheduled for the Spanish mainland in cities like Malaga and Madrid as well as London and Berlin.
The protests were organised under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a limit.”
Campaigners have been quick to distance themselves from anti-tourist graffiti which has appeared on walls and benches in and around southern Tenerife.
At the beginning of this week a picture was published in local press showing the words “Go Home” on a hire car in the popular holiday hotspot.
Anti-tourist protestors want the authorities to paralyse two tourist projects including one which involves the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife’s last virgin beaches.
They are also looking for more protection from mass tourism – to help with the local environment, traffic, and housing issues.
Other demands include the protection of natural spaces, a tourist tax and better working conditions for hotel cleaners, who joined today’s protest in Santa Cruz as they insisted to local press: “We are not slaves.”
Official sources put the number of demonstrators in Tenerife at midday at around 10,000 people.
By 1pm it had increased to 15,000 with some predictions that the crowd could end up surpassing the 50,000 mark.
Protestor Xiomara Cruz, who took part in Gran Canaria, said: “They made us believe that in the Canary Islands we live from tourism and what we want is the right of islanders to live in their land.”
Paula Rincon told local press: “It pains me that Canarians cannot afford to live in their own neighbourhoods.”
The protests in the Canary Islands are mostly taking place away from the main tourist areas, which in Tenerife and Gran Canaria are in the south of the islands.
Some British holidaymakers have shown their support for the issues raised by the islanders but others have accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.
The Canary Islands’ tourism minister Jessica de Leon has urged British holidaymakers not to cancel their holidays ahead of today’s demos.
Jorge Marichal, a hotel chain boss in Tenerife, revealed that Brits were ringing up out of fear they would not be safe on their holidays to the island.
Hesaid: “One of the problems I am facing is that clients are beginning to call and ask what’s happening here and whether it’s safe.
“It’s happening in some hotels.”
While the hotel owner said he understands the pain of local people, he added that being “anti-tourist” is not the way to go in.
“It pains me because people confuse the message. We don’t have to be anti-tourist. What we have to do is demand infrastructure that matches the tourist model that’s been chosen.”
A wave of anti-tourist graffiti spread across the island to tell Brits they are not welcome.
Bitter messages outside tourism hotspots read “your paradise, our misery” and “tourists go home”.
“Locals are forced to move out and YOU are responsible for that,” said a furious printed sign.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
Another read: “Tourists go home!”
In an apparent UK backlash, a response left in English on a wall next to a ‘Tourists go home’ message said: “F##k off, we pay your wages.”
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