Tenerife Locals to Protest Over-Tourism: 'The Canary Islands Have a Limit' 

Same here in Cornwall mass tourism no affordable housing for locals and just ignorant holiday makers with no respect for hard working locals.

You seem to overlook a crucial aspect here. People aren't inherently against tourism or tourists themselves. Despite the significant tourist influx and the money supposedly being injected into our region, we find ourselves among the poorest areas in Spain, with over 36% of our population at risk of exclusion. Many hotels have been constructed illegally-take, for instance, the Papagayo resort or the recent construction plans for Cuna del Alma, both with unauthorized permits. We lack the infrastructure to handle the sheer volume of visitors, and local authorities haven't made concerted efforts to address this issue. Consequently, wastewater is illegally discharged into the sea due to the lack of proper treatment facilities. Moreover, our natural areas remain unprotected, despite the substantial revenue generated from tourism. This misallocation of funds is compounded by rising costs of living, including inflated prices for housing, food, and daily necessities, as well as worsening traffic congestion. And I could go on and on with many more problems. Are these the holidays that you desire? Swimming in polluted waters? Losing access to the natural wonders tourists come here to enjoy? Staying in establishments operating outside the law? I urge you to consider the broader ramifications. Reducing this complex situation to mere "tourist fatigue" oversimplifies the matter.

Let’s not beat around the bush, seems they want better conditions for the locals and a better quality of tourist.

Maybe it the quality of tourists that's the problem.

not a single interview with someone who was born on the island. This is so biased

As a tourist I think its sad to go to Tenerife and instead of enjoying spanish culture,food and places you get to see a lot of fish and chips shops,a lot of pubs full of drunks...Im totatlly with the locals,I really hope smth will change and all the british will be exit as they voted

They are not helping the local people but the owners of the hoteles that take the money abroad, they leave nothing here but their waste

How ironic that the guy talking against tourists is talking with a britsh accent. Lol hypocrisy

The irony of a Brit talking about too many people going to a Spanish Island. Thats Hysterical.

Housing: residents of 5 years + get 1st offer & reduced sale price. Overseas buyers - increased taxes, increase sale price with a proportion going into local economy More rentals for residents only Encourage tourists back into hotels rather than holiday rentals Tourist tax on arrival €20 per trip - give to residents and reduce taxes Loads can be done

So, in essence what the English protester is saying is that as he has been there for years, it is alright for him to protest against the "mass tourist" numbers to the Canary Islands as he is not part of the perceived problems of "mass"tourist numbers to the Canary Islands, and he thinks that all the problems on the Canary Islands are because of that and nothing to do with the failure of all the councils on the Canary Islands to build affordable housing for locals, to ensure that locals are not paid the minimum salary that hotels and almost every business on the Canary Islands feel they can get away with paying, to curb the huge amount of corruption on the Canary Islands that is responsible for many of the problems on the Canary Islands, the huge numbers arriving almost daily by boats who have to be housed, given medical treatment and other support without having paid a single penny into the Canary Islands or benefitted them in any way, and who are all going to be perfectly happy selling the odd fake watch or fake handbags every once in a while?

I’d pay a tourist tax, even €20-50 is more than reasonable to contribute towards their infrastructure and help them build and sustain roads, sewage works and recycling centres etc. It’s a beautiful, delicate and important ecological place and when I’m there, I do my best to support them through utilising Spanish businesses/culture and cleaning up after myself.

I heard, "Stop developing for tourists who are contributing to the local economy. We need more luxury developments for wealthy retirees to distance themselves from locals."

Speaking as a man who lives in Tenerife Their entire economy almost runs on tourism, when the tourists go most businesses will lose their main source of income So make of that what you will

It is up to their government to manage tourism better. I can understand how they feel. Even as a tourist I can see over development. Buildings just thrown up with no concern for the impact.

The British expat moaning about British tourists, typical example of “I’m alright Jack”

just booked 95£ return from scotland what a bargain TUI😄

British entitlement in its best! This islands existed well and good long before british tourism. Also probably 6 millions of revenue in tourism are not even benefiting general population but the pockets of external investors, many english! lol

By this guys thinking, cut arrivals by 50% and double the cost of the holidays. Great financial strategy.

I don’t blame them tbh.

Being English, if I protested against “tourists” coming to the uk I’m called a racist.

The lack of affordable housing is solely because of all the councils on the Canary Islands not building enough affordable housing for years even though they all know that this problem has been brewing for years and that is solely the fault of every council on the Canary Islands, and they know it. So is the low income on the Canary Islands, that is purely down to almost every business on the Canary Islands paying their workers the lowest salary they can and nothing whatsoever to do with tourists. So is the continual building of more and more hotels and if you think that there is no bribery and corruption in this, think again, because bribery and corruption is a big part of the problem, and this also is not the fault of tourists.

Being on hunger strike saves you money!

This is about housing and being wrongly portrayed as tourism

What is the point of blurring out the notices? None.

I've been to Tenerife twice. I think a tourist tax is very reasonable. It will limit tourism a bit and raise much needed revenue for the locals. Also, there should be restrictions on foreigners buying homes on the island. Locals can't afford to buy a house.

It's not the tourists who are to blame. They spend a lot of money there. The problem is how that money is distributed among the indigenous population! Not very well obviously!

There's a parrallel to this back in dear old Blighty and many other countries. People have no possibility of affording a home in the cities ( especially the main workplaces-eg London in the UK , Auckland in NZ , Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, the list is endless!) So if GOVERNMENTS don't MANAGE URBAN RESOURCES WELL it equals homelessness and people having to move away from their native areas of birth to find somewhere to live etc. On the Canary Isles like in the UK, if there was a plan to build adequate provision for residential housing at the same time any approvals are given for tourist accomodation, then there would be none of this problem. It's all PROFIT PROFIT PROFIT ! And these superficial Morning TV discussions rarely touch base on anything more than the obvious !

Beef is everywhere 😂

Beautiful islands being destroyed by tourism... common sense

We don’t want tourists just there money please

What local economic you say if you BUY and SELL yourself?

The expat with those views should leave.

This is pure gold comedy. Offended Brits being drama queens completely getting the wrong side of the stick. Media outlets misrepresenting the real issue. And as if that wasn’t enough, a British immigrant (or shall I say expat?) explaining to the rest of the word what’s “really” going on. You couldn’t make this one up!

luckily some islands like la gomera are quit chill even teneriffe but tehyres some citys like los cristianos that are basically only one big hotel.

If there is a fine balance to be found in tourism, I am not aware of it. I grew up in a seaside town in Oregon, and now live in another tourist destination place in Oregon, and I HATE IT!!! The town I was born and raised in completely caters to the tourists. Much of the housing has been bought up by corporations to build hotels and condos. Housing has also been bought up for use as vacation rentals. All of this at the expense of the people who live there. For those of us live in these areas, this means we pay more in everyday expenses because the price of gasoline goes up in the spring, and stays up till end of fall. We also have higher grocery costs. Tourists take over our towns. It's impossible to find parking, or get into a restaurant. We also get cruise ships, so now we have HUGE buses busing the people off the ships all over our hills. Last year, in one day, my neighbor counted 13 buses! Those are the ones she saw! So instead of enjoying my peaceful front yard I get noisy polluting buses. I have thought of putting up a sign in my front yard as well, GO HOME!!!

Boycott the place.

There is tourism and there is tourism. The problem is the kind of tourism coming particularly from the UK behaving disrespectfully and not respecting local traditions and cultures. I also wouldn't like that in my country.

Your are welcome in Corralejo)

Ive only been once not going back anyway

Isnt that down to the government. I wont be going back to Tenerife any time soon.

These islands have catered too much to the British tourist with pubs etc. Not to say that is inherently bad but I think it’s warranted to feel some way as a local if the guest coming to your country won’t appreciate your culture, respect the environment, and create chaos being rowdy drunks

booked and payed for my holiday to tenerife in october first holiday for five years don't think i can change destination now. was so looking forward to it not now rather go to southend

Expat or immigrant?

what is the islands biggest income then ?

I went to the Canaries on a budgie airline

Notice must be taken if locals cannot afford housing or if there is a shortage of housing for locals. A balance must be found. In general UK tourists are very important to Spain. On the occasion when there were fewer tourists, unemployment rocketed in Spain.

from what i'm getting that's actually a problem created bythe governemt and people are blaming the tourist. sad. inorder to build a hotel the governement must grant the right to the developer, so they government then should find a way to extract revenue from that inorder to reinvest in the island, that's not the tourist fault,

Ok, as a canarian who lives in Tenerife, I would like to say several things. Fristly, the problem is not you (the tourist that you go here). I really condenm those graffitis that says "tourist go home", no, that is not true, if you wanna have your holidays here, then you will be welcome. So, please, do not misunderstand us. You are welcome, we want you to visit us. The problem is the model of tourism that we have here. The destruction of the nature, the continious construction of hotels, and also the price for having a decent house. For you, the tourist, it is really easy to find a hotel for having your vacations here. However, for somebody who lives in "Los Cristianos" or "Los Gigantes" (the south of the island) it can be really hard to fin a place for living in the north and then going to the university. I know students from the south of Tenerife that struggles so much for finding a residence close to the university that they have to live in illegal rooms without hot water for a shower. Another thing that I would like to add is that those 6 milions of Euros that the man on the left is saying, that data is a bit fallacious. Those milions, most of it, are not for the locals, but for the big touristic companies. We are not having benefits of those milions. At least not too much. Canary islands is not rich because of tourism. Tourism is rich because of Canary Islands. So, please, do not do missinformation. I felt as if this media was far-right. These are several reasons of why sometimes I think that I am living in a Colony, for Spain o for Europe.

Remember the hotels are owned by brits just so you know. How does it feel to feel unwelcome in a place you want to be? That’s how it feels for others when we speak in condescending language

this is crazy, my sister in law has married a bloke from the canaries, he was working over here in london as a waiter in covent garden, point is Carmelo is in his 40s and had to come here to find work as he reckons there are zero jobs in gran canaria and his whole family are skint...they welcome tourists and want more to create jobs back home

Same in the Uk really we are overpopulated but our tourists don't leave

Use the money they earn to build more houses, fix the roads...

Can't wait for Tenerife to beg for help because bars restaurants hotels and thousands of jobs are gone

They're not anti tourist they're anti lack of regulations, Landlords are evicting people so they can let their homes through Air BnB, locals are being forced into cramped conditions, they're lovely people but being pushed to their limit.

"just because youve got the money, doesn't mean you got the right" Motorhead

Spend your money elsewhere. Simple really

Its black sand. There is an English side and a German side me being a uk citizen well travelled prefer german civilised side. Some British want to be altogether but we are in a new country, they need to promote places to go where its crowded ie boat trips etc or change times open and close I go Jersey but pay more for less days. Sadly some uk people only travel once a year. But me 16 places this year 5 is trips 1 is festival rest is working away so travel experience😮 Ideas more private events in outside areas of hotels for guests to reduce towns, bars getting more crowded

So what exactly is an expat?

What a shame, I really liked Tenerife for a winter break. Now we will have to choose somewhere else to avoid the animosity . Maybe Cape Verde, that has nice weather in winter.

Sounds like the UK with immigration

Don't blame them

I've been to the canaries lots of times over the years, I'll not be back if I'm not welcome, I do agree with what the guys saying, it is a lot busier now than it used to be, put a limit on tourism.

Boycot them and visit Cyprus instead much more friendly to British and they drive on the correct side of the road. I'm switching away from Canary islands this year, spend my euros money to where its welcomed.

It’s funny how the interviewer never once called out the interviewee hypocrisy on his stance on his anti-tourism when he himself have a British accent.

With Spain blame their govt. they wanted tourists . Can’t have it both ways

400 thousand Spanish nationals who live in England “Go home”

What a lot of nonsense

What about all the ex pats that have very heavily invested in property ? I don’t recall them moaning when your spending Euros in their shops, restaurants, golf courses and bars ? You can’t have your cake and eat it … simples 😮

I'm sorry, but pretending that over tourism isn't an issue for local communities is just ignorance. There is a point where the "money" argument is not good enough. The same movement against tourism started in Amsterdam a couple of years ago. You may not like it, they'll probably lose some profits but it's their home and theirs rules.

Brian , put down the churros mate .

Well let’s all go to grease we are very welcome there so I don’t think I will go to tennerif again 😮😮😮😮😮

Why would you cut the guy off when he’s explaining to you? What exactly that beef is it’s ridiculous that you would call yourself news when you don’t wanna inform people of what it is. It’s going on.

This is not what the locals are protesting about, this is terrible reporting which will have serious consequences for the local people

Similar issues in Hawaii.

Increasing the quality of tourism. Here it is. That means high class resorts and everyone else can bug off. This is the destruction of small self owned business.

raise the prices or Brits, go to some other sunny places instead

Went once not again they can stick

Isn't just the canaries...

Menudos cínicos. Con este tipo de pseudoperiodistas no se comprende qué sucede. Hipócritas.

To gmb..you absolute LIARS..the protests in the canary lslands everyone isn't about tourism it's about building more affordable homes for the people who live there.

Iam in Tenerife now I love it here but if they don’t want us then I never come back no problem

A hypothetical expat.

That’s us told and we won’t be going back there now we know how much we’re hated. We always tip generously. Last year a local spat at our friend who came with us. We thought it was a one off. But now we know what they think of Brits, we won’t be back. Let them have their islands back. Plenty of other places where we are welcome and people are more friendly like Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Malta or Turkey. Good bye Tenerife and Canaries, hope you enjoy your tourist free future!

I’ve got a month booked in two separate holidays in Tenerife, me my wife and Family have been going there for decades, have spent eye watering amounts of money there along with our friends, we can spend it elsewhere, no problem. We respect the residents wishes we can go elsewhere, with cheaper flights. It’s also getting too expensive to holiday there too so no problem, maybe they can have our immigrants instead

Yet another terrible interview from GMB. They didn’t seem to be listening to the Brit Tenerife resident and kept going with the angle that British tourists will be put out by it all.

I´m from Tenerife,there were not more that 60.000 people at the demonstration,pouplation of Tenerife is 950.000+,not representative of Tenerife

6 billion pounds to the country well take the money go to other countries yhen see them cry coz we taken the money some where else and they loss 6 billion a year

We are the UK and we go where we want! Well.. apart from North Korea as obviously they don’t appreciate our ways. And maybe not the Yemen and Palestine or the Ukraine and maybe China and Somalia. Though me mate went to Somalia to enter the tv show ‘Somalia Pirate Apprentice’ but he hasn’t kept in touch tbh. Still we go where we want within reason innit. 🇬🇧

What about the influx of illegal migration to the UK.

They don't want Irish either, I say Boycott Tenerife , Lanzarote , etc. There's other hot spots to holiday in..

Tourist tax? What a cheek when tourists already contributes so much already! The tourist tax is just another stealth tax. It’s not the tourists fault but those who manage the country.

I’m watching this from my apartment in Los Cristianos, more taxes won’t help tourism I personally will go to Turkey which is cheaper and better quality!

Becareful what you wish for. 6 billion dollars just from Britain is alot of money for tiny islands. Look at the places that live off of tourists and they stopped coming. They are no longer around.

What a load of twaddle. Get a grip.

Your interview lame ... go speak to some people born there, not some tourists that decided to stay.

Many Touri... liars

It’s no trouble, I just won’t go there. I’ll take my money elsewhere. Enjoy your island!

Tourist will just end up.going to Turkey or Greece then tenerife will complain about the loss of money

It’s all about the crazy brits