Locals turn against mass tourism
Tens of thousands protest against Canary Islands’ ‘unsustainable’ tourism model Organisers say 50,000 turn out to call for limit on tourist numbers, saying model makes life unaffordable and puts strain on resources Tens of thousands of people are protesting across the Canary Islands to call for an urgent rethink of the Spanish archipelago’s tourism strategy and a freeze on visitor numbers, arguing that the decades-old model has made life unaffordable and environmentally unsustainable for residents. The protests, which are taking place under the banner “Canarias tiene un límite” – The Canaries have a limit – are backed by environmental groups including Greenpeace, WWF, Ecologists in Action, Friends of the Earth and SEO/Birdlife. “We’ve reached the point where the balance between the use of resources and the welfare of the population here has broken down , especially over the past year,” said Víctor Martín, a spokesperson for the collective Canarias se Agota – The Canaries Have