On Sunday, protests demanding a shift in the Spanish islands’ tourism strategy took place simultaneously in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and El Hierro.
While vacationers were sunbathing on Tenerife’s Playa de las Americas, a popular vacation destination for British nationals, demonstrators appeared on the beach and chanted: This beach is ours.
According to the Spanish government, at least 8,000 people participated in the demonstrations with the motto “Canary Islands has a limit.”
According to activists, locals are being priced out of the property market, and the annual influx of millions of tourists destroys and depletes scarce natural resources like water.
According to the Spanish National Statistics Institute, the islands had 2.2 million residents last year, while 9.9 million tourists visited between January and September, a 10.3% increase over the same time in 2023.
In Gran Canaria, 32-year-old Sara Lopez stated, “We need a change in the tourist model so it leaves richness here, a change so it values what this land has because it is beautiful.”
Spain’s economy depends heavily on tourism, but this year has seen a number of protests in Barcelona and other well-known vacation spots like Mallorca and Malaga.
