THOUSANDS of people took to the streets today in Tenerife to demand restrictions on holidaymakers after telling Brits to “go home”.
The anti-tourist hordes filled a square in the capital brandishing banners including some that read “You enjoy we suffer” in English.
SolarpixThousands of people marched through Tenerife and other Canary Islands today[/caption]
SolarpixPeople carried banners complaining about mass tourism in the holiday hotspot[/caption]
SolarpixThe march is part of a growing anti-tourist movement[/caption]
SolarpixProtestors waved Canary Islands’ flags and blew horns to make a deafening noise[/caption]
More than 15,000 people waved Canary Islands’ flags and blew horns to make a deafening noise in capital Santa Cruz.
Protests also took place at the same time on other popular Canary islands including Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.
Campaigners have tried to distance themselves from anti-tourist graffiti which has appeared on walls and benches in and around southern Tenerife.
Bitter messages plastered in tourism hotspots over recent months have read “your paradise, our misery” and told “tourists go home”.
Tenerife particularly has gone to bat against sun-seeking Brits who have even called hotels on the island out of fear they may not be safe on their holidays.
Residents of the sun-soaked destination have said they are “fed-up” of “low quality” Brit tourists who only come for the cheap beer, burgers and sunbathing.
But the Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo expressed his concern over the growing anti-tourism movement and begged holidaymakers to keep coming.
Banners at the mass protest today read: “Where is the money from tourism?” and “‘Tourist moratorium now.”
The marches were organised under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a limit.”
Anti-tourist protestors want the authorities to paralyse two projects including one which involves the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife’s last virgin beaches.
They are also looking for more protection from mass tourism – to help with the local environment, traffic and housing issues.
Other demands include the protection of natural spaces, a tourist tax and better working conditions for hotel cleaners, who joined today’s protest in Santa Cruz as they insisted to local press: “We are not slaves.”
More demonstrations are scheduled for the Spanish mainland in cities like Malaga and Madrid as well as London and Berlin.
Official sources put the number of demonstrators in Tenerife at midday at around 10,000 people.
By 1pm it had increased to 15,000 with some predictions that the crowd could end up surpassing 50,000.
One Tenerife hotel-owner said Brits were calling in fear for their safety during holidays to the island
SolarpixBy lunchtime the Tenerife protest hit 15,000 people[/caption]
Protestor Xiomara Cruz, who took part in Gran Canaria, said: “They made us believe that in the Canary Islands we live from tourism and what we want is the right of islanders to live in their land.”
Paula Rincon told local press: “It pains me that Canarians cannot afford to live in their own neighbourhoods.”
The marches in the Canary Islands are mostly taking place away from the main tourist hubs, which in Tenerife and Gran Canaria are in the south.
Some British holidaymakers have shown their support for the issues raised by the islanders but others have accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.
One Brit, Ellie Taylor, told The Sun: “Half the restaurants would not be open if it wasn’t for us.”
Another disgruntled sun-seeker has put it more simply, scrawling beside some of the graffiti: “F*** off.
“We pay your wages!”
The Canary Islands’ tourism minister Jessica de Leon has urged British holidaymakers not to cancel their holidays ahead of today’s demos.
Jorge Marichal, a hotel chain boss in Tenerife, revealed that Brits were ringing up out of fear they would not be safe on their holidays to the island.
He said: “One of the problems I am facing is that clients are beginning to call and ask what’s happening here and whether it’s safe.”
While the hotel owner said he understands the pain of local people, he added that being “anti-tourist” is not the way to go in.
“It pains me because people confuse the message. We don’t have to be anti-tourist. What we have to do is demand infrastructure that matches the tourist model that’s been chosen,” he said.
A wave of anti-tourist graffiti spread across the island to tell Brits they are not welcome.
Bitter messages outside tourism hotspots read “your paradise, our misery” and “tourists go home”.
“Locals are forced to move out and YOU are responsible for that,” said a furious printed sign.
Another read: “Tourists go home!”
Some of the anti-tourist graffiti in Tenerife
SolarpixAngry residents are protesting against mass tourism in the area[/caption]
SolarpixThousands of people filled the street in Tenerife’s capital[/caption]