A huge resort on what is described as one of Tenerife’s last pristine beaches was the final straw. Last week, Spain’s Congress decided not to pause construction, and after years of vocal criticism of the country’s tourism, parts of the movement Canarias Se Agata, “Canarians have had enough”, have therefore gone on hunger strike.
– If local authorities do not listen to these people, they risk their lives, says Rubén Pérez Flores, spokesperson for the movement, to local media according to BBC.
14 million tourists
Criticism of tourism has flared up in several parts of Spain, but the debate has been particularly fierce in the Canary Islands, where a third of the population lives on the poverty line.
Canarias Se Agata is critical of how tourism is allowed to run amok on the island group. Last year, almost 14 million tourists visited one of the islands – six times more than the 2.2 million inhabitants who live there permanently.
According to representatives of the group, this leads both to poorer living conditions for the residents and to the destruction of nature.
– Ironically, it is tourism itself that destroys the product it sells, says Felipe Ravina, one of the strikers.
Warns of “tourist phobia”
The movement wants the authorities to freeze all planned tourism projects and review the islands’ economic model. And as for the latter, they seem to get approval from above.
The Chamber of Commerce in Santa Cruz, Tenerife’s capital, writes in a post on social media that it may actually be time to review the future of tourism in the Canary Islands. At the same time, they warn of “tourism unemployment”, considering that tourism accounts for 35 percent of the archipelago’s GDP and 40 percent of all jobs.
The majority of visitors to the Canary Islands are British and German, but it is also a popular holiday destination for mainland Spaniards.