Alex Trelinski
PROTESTS against mass tourism will be held across the Canary Islands on Saturday as concerns grow over issues like homelessness and overcrowded roads.
Environmental groups and residents have come together under a platform name of ‘Canarias se exhauste'(The Canary Islands are exhausted) to organise the demonstrations.
They want a new eco-tax to help preserve natural spaces, as well as a moratorium on tourism and holiday rentals and regulations on foreign purchases of properties.
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Several members of the platform began a hunger strike last week to demand the suspension of two projects in Tenerife.
They are the construction of a hotel in La Tejita and the Cuna del Alma villa complex, in Adeje, which had two work suspension orders issued for not having commissioned an environmental impact report.
The hotel association of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Ashotel), says they feel singled out by these groups and also by the regional government.
Tenerife’s construction association (Fepeco) has branded demonstration organisers as ‘lazy’ and called them ‘agitators’.
The Canarian government is currently processing a law on the regulation of the tourist use of homes which will see no new licences granted unless the local planning department of a municipality gives approval.
Tourism accounts for 35% of the Canary Island GDP and nearly 40% of jobs, according to figures from the regional government.
After the Covid pandemic, it has returned to record levels with 13.9 million foreign tourists visiting the islands last year- the second best year ever- and 6.1% above 2019.
The government recently announced that a survey will be launched on the perception of Canarian residents regarding the economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts of tourism activity in the islands.
A 2019 survey by the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (ISTAC) showed that 83.2% of the population wanted to continue promoting tourism.
80.1% of the people interviewed viewed the sector as positive for the islands and their residents.
