A woman demonstrates on the island of Gran Canaria on October 20, 2024 – Photograph: Borja Suarez/Reuters
On Sunday, about 30,000 people took to the streets in various cities and towns of the Canary Islands in protest against excessive tourism. Euronews writes. “The Canary Islands have limits!” With this slogan, residents demonstrated simultaneously in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and El Hierro, demanding a change in the tourism model of the islands. In the Canary Islands, a series of several thousand demonstrations took place for half a year, which took place due to unsustainable tourism. The spring protests also received support from environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Reuters writesProtesters also appeared on a beach in Tenerife during Sunday's demonstration and began chanting to tourists sunbathing there (“This beach is ours!”). The Spanish government estimated the number of demonstrators to be less than Euronews, saying that about eight thousand people participated in the demonstrations.
In 2023, more than 16 million tourists visited the archipelago, and based on estimates, this number could be higher in 2024. Tourists will spend more than 20 billion euros here in 2023, and protesters acknowledge that tourism is vital for creating jobs – but it is also a source of It is a serious struggle as these jobs often do not pay well, and many of the island's property owners do not live there permanently. Therefore, apartment prices and rent are almost unaffordable for local residents. Many people are dissatisfied with their living conditions and employment opportunities, which is associated with serving a very large number of tourists.
This summer, Spain recorded a record 21.8 million foreign visitors, despite local residents protesting against tourism across the country, in the Canary Islands, for example, in Barcelona and Malaga. Spanish officials said the nearly 22 million visitors represented a 7.3 percent increase compared to 2023. Many European cities (such as Venice, Amsterdam, and Barcelona) are trying to compete against overtourism, including a daily ticket system, additional taxes, hotel moratoriums, and sign changes. Commercial.
