130,000 inhabitants of the Canary Islands have spoken out against mass tourism and property purchases by foreigners

More than 130,000 people took to the streets of towns and villages in the eight islands of the Canary Archipelago to demand an end to the mass tourism that is ruining their homelands. Under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a border”, they also demanded the introduction of an eco-tax and the regulation of home purchases by foreigners.

Tourism accounts for 35% of the Canary Islands’ gross domestic product and nearly 40% of employment, and yet local residents say they don’t feel they are getting any better with the ever-growing number of outside visitors, on the contrary – the islands are getting polluted, the water is running out, and houses are skyrocketing in price.

According to them, a moratorium should be imposed on the construction of new hotel complexes and the issuing of tourist licenses to private properties in order to limit mass tourism, which “ruins the islands”, BNR reports. “I miss the land I used to know”, “Where is the tourism money?” and “Save the youth from slavery” were just some of the placards the protesters in Tenerife carried.

To these were later added two giant puppets with the faces of regional Prime Minister Fernando Clavijo and the president of the hotel employers’ association, Jorge Marijal, whom those present accused of personal enrichment from tourism development. According to them, it is time for the model to change and “return the Canary Islands to their inhabitants”.

Demonstrations in their support were also held in other Spanish cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Malaga, Granada and Palma de Mallorca, as well as abroad – Berlin, London and Brussels. Canarians living outside the islands echoed the argument that mass tourism is “driving out the local population”, pointing to high levels of poverty, low wages, escalating rents and housing prices, and natural disasters.