Tens of thousands of residents of the Canary Islands demonstrated last Saturday to express to the authorities their dissatisfaction with mass tourism, which negatively affects the living conditions of a significant part of the population of this Spanish archipelago.
With the support of environmental organizations Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund the organizers demand to limit the number of tourists, introduce an environmental tax for them and regulate the purchase of real estate by foreigners.
According to government estimates, more than 32,000 people demonstrated in Santa Cruz de Tenerife under the slogans "The Canary Islands have a limit" and "The Canary Islands are not for sale", and about 14,000 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In parallel, support rallies were held in Barcelona and Madrid.
In addition to mass tourism, residents of the Canaries are dissatisfied with the low level of wages, and also oppose the construction of two new luxury hotels in Tenerife and demand participation in decision-making regarding the development of tourism, which remains the driving force behind the development of the archipelago's economy.
Tourism accounts for 35% of the GDP of the Canary Islands. Every fourth inhabitant of the archipelago is employed in the tourism sector today.
The Canary Islands, with a population of 2.2 million people, were visited by almost 14 million tourists in 2023.
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