Thousands of flag-waving demonstrators hit the streets across Spain's Canary Islands on Sunday to demand restrictions to the mass tourism they say is overwhelming their Atlantic archipelago. The islands, which lie of the northwestern coast of Africa, are known for their volcanic landscapes and year-round sunshine that make them a popular destination for northern European sunseekers. Last year a record 16.2 million people visited the Canary Islands, a 10.9 percent increase over 2022 and more than seven times its population of some 2.2 million, a level demonstrators argue is unsustainable for the archipelago's limited resources. (Report and images: AFP)
Updated On: 2024-10-21 02:44 PM IST
Compiled by : Raaina Jain
Rallying under the slogan "The Canary Islands have a limit", demonstrators began marching at midday in tourist hotspots across all of the archipelago's seven main islands. Waving white, blue and yellow flags of the Canary Islands, chanting and whistling protesters slow-marched by tourists sitting in outdoor terraces in Playa de las America before they rallied on the beach. "This beach is ours," they chanted.
The demonstration followed large protests held in April in town squares across the archipelago against a model of mass tourism critics say favours investors at the expense of the environment, and that prices local residents out of housing and forces them into precarious jobs.
Holding placards reading "The Canaries are not for sale" and "Enough is enough", demonstrators called for limits on tourist numbers, a crackdown on holiday apartments and curbs on what they describe as uncontrolled development.
Some tourists cheered the demonstrators as they went by. "The coastline is being damaged by so much construction. I totally agree with them," said Rosalia Magalilo, a 55-year-old tourist from Switzerland who said she had been coming to Gran Canaria for 30 years.
Anti-tourism protests have multiplied in recent months across Spain, the world's second-most visited country after France.
