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22-04-2024
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE: Thousands of people protested in Tenerife on Saturday, calling for the Spanish island to temporarily limit tourist arrivals to stem a boom in short-term holiday rentals and hotel construction that is driving up housing costs for locals.
Holding placards reading “People live here” and “We don’t want to see our island die”, demonstrators said changes must be made to the tourism industry that accounts for 35% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the Canary Islands archipelago.
“It’s not a message against the tourist, but against a tourism model that doesn’t benefit this land and needs to be changed,” one of the protesters told Reuters during the march in Tenerife’s capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Smaller marches were held elsewhere in the island group and other Spanish cities, all of them organized by about two dozen environmental organizations ahead of the peak summer holiday season.
The organizations say local authorities should temporarily limit visitor numbers to alleviate pressure on the islands’ environment, infrastructure and housing stock, and put curbs on property purchases by foreigners.
“The authorities must immediately stop this corrupt and destructive model that depletes the resources and makes the economy more precarious. The Canary Islands have limits and people’s patience too,” Antonio Bullon, one of the protest leaders, told media.
The archipelago of 2.2 million people was visited by nearly 14 million foreign tourists in 2023, up 13% from the previous year, according to official data.
Authorities in the islands are concerned about the impact on locals. A draft law expected to pass this year toughening the rules on short lets follows complaints from residents priced out of the housing market.
Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo said on Friday he felt “proud” that the region was a leading Spanish tourist destination, but acknowledged that more controls were needed as the sector continues to grow.
“We can’t keep looking away. Otherwise, hotels will continue to open without any control,” he told a press conference.
Soon after Maria Rosa Sanchez reported her neighbor for renting her building’s rooftop in Tenerife as a campsite on Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab, police officers carried out an early morning raid and local authorities opened an investigation.
The closure of the campsite, which offered tents for 12 euros ($13.03) a night, is a foretaste of a new hard line towards illegal short-lets on Spain’s Canary Islands, where listings on platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com have soared.
A draft law expected to pass this year toughening the rules on short lets follows complaints from locals priced out of the housing market and from hotels facing taxes and sustainability rules skirted by companies investing in short term rentals.
Authorities worldwide are grappling with similar issues: Canada, Australia and Italy are among many countries which have tightened the rules around short-term rentals to protect local communities.
The Canary Islands also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the Atlantic Ocean. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of Morocco and the Western Sahara. They are the southernmost of the autonomous communities of Spain. The islands have a population of 2.2 million people and are the most populous special territory of the European Union. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
