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Thousands of local residents in Spain’s Canary Islands have protested against mass tourism on Sunday, demanding action from authorities to curb visitor numbers and protect residents from soaring housing costs, traffic congestion and overburdened services.
Marching under the banner “Canaries have a limit”, demonstrators took to the streets across the archipelago’s main islands and even spread to several mainland Spanish cities.
Some protesters also voiced anxieties about the strain on local water resources due to the influx of tourists.
“Tourism is very important for the Canary Islands, but we have to realise that the collapse is total,” said Juan Francisco Galindo, a hotel manager in Tenerife.
His father owns a small island property on which the local administration issued an expropriation order in 2023 due to the approval of a luxury hotel complex project.
“Those 70 square metres (750 square feet) that they want to expropriate are all my father has. His health situation has deteriorated since this happened,” he said.
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A man holds a sign, reading: ‘If tourism generates wealth, where is our share?’ (REUTERS/Borja Suarez)
More than 1 million foreign tourists visit the Canary Islands each month, compared to a local population of 2.2 million, according to official data.
Spain, which had a record number of tourist arrivals in 2024, expects even more visitors this year.
Galindo said the number of hotel beds had tripled since the 1970s when the islands’ infrastructure was built, leading to skyrocketing housing costs, traffic jams and limited access to health services during peak tourism season.
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The demonstration in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (REUTERS/Borja Suarez)
Spain has witnessed several protests against overtourism in other popular holiday destinations, including Mallorca, Barcelona and Malaga. Similar demonstrations were held in the Canaries last year.
Sirlene Alonso, a lawyer who lives in Gran Canaria, criticised the regional government’s plans to build more housing instead of limiting tourist numbers.
“The goal is not tourism quality, but that more and more tourists come. The number of tourists and people who come to live here is crushing us,” she said.
Canary Island officials travelled this week to Brussels to seek European Union funds for affordable housing in the region’s outermost areas.