Madrid [Spain], April 22: Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against mass tourism on Spain's Canary Islands on Saturday under the slogan "The Canary Islands have a limit."
A total of 55,000 demonstrators on the eight inhabited islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa demanded an upper limit on the number of tourists and called for affordable housing for locals, the state TV station RTVE and the newspaper El País reported.
Some 2.2 million people live on the Canary Islands. Almost seven times as many foreign tourists visited the islands last year, with around 14 million visitors, mainly from the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.
There were also around 2 million Spaniards from the mainland who went on holiday there in 2023. Most foreign tourists travelled to the larger islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.
Tourism is essential for the islands' economy.
The industry accounts for 35 percent of economic output and secures 40 percent of jobs.
However, only a few benefit from the boom.
Of Spain's 17 autonomous communities, or regions, the Canary Islands are the second poorest. Activists emphasize that they are not fundamentally against tourism, but against the creeping destruction of the islands.
The biologist and well-known documentary filmmaker Felipe Ravina recently said: "For years we have been promoting ourselves as a unique nature destination, but tourism is destroying the product we sell."
Source: Qatar Tribune