TENERIFE WILL SLAP HOLIDAYMAKERS WITH A TOURIST TAX FROM JANUARY
- Tenerife authorities confirmed an eco tax will be introduced on 1 January 2025
- Holidaymakers will be slapped with the charge when visiting protected sites
- Move will help placate protestors who demand changes to tourism on the island
Tenerife will press ahead with a controversial tax on holidaymakers visiting its most famous tourist spots from the start of next year, local authorities confirmed on Friday.
The move comes in the wake of 50,000 residents pouring into the streets of Tenerife last Saturday to protest against tourism on the island, alongside a small group of hunger strikers, who are entering their 16th day without food.
They claim holidaymakers are causing major environmental damage, driving down wages and squeezing locals out of cheap affordable housing, forcing dozens to live in tents and cars instead.
This latest proposal is part of the island's new tourism strategy and is seen as an eco tax, but the level of charge and the formalities are yet to be agreed by Parliament.
But today, the island's council confirmed January 1, 2025 is the target date to introduce the new charge.
It will apply to all of Tenerife's most famous protected sites, including the volcano Mount Teide and several rural parks and hamlets like Masca.
The move will go some way to placating protesters who took to the streets of all eight Canary Islands to demand a change in the current tourism model.
They say the islands are being ruined by too many tourists and the protected landscape ruined by hundreds of thousands of visitors.
However the protesters want more extensive changes including the introduction of a general tourist tax and a moratorium on building new hotels and tourist accommodation.
At least six of the campaigners are still on hunger strike and a sit-in was today held on Gran Canaria to support them.
Tenerife Cabildo says the new charge is essential to safeguard the island's protected spaces and there will be controls over numbers and access.
The income generated will be ploughed back into the upkeep, maintenance and improvements of the open spaces.
A study will now be carried out to determine how much will be charged and how it will be policed.
It is understood that locals will also be charged though a decision on this has yet to be made.
A spokesman for the Tenerife government said the introduction of this eco tax was necessary due to the vast increase of people visiting protected sites, visitors and locals alike.
There has been no official update about the hunger strikers though at least two of them have required medical treatment and one was taken to hospital.
The protesters say not enough is being done over their demands and are planning more demonstrations.
Some have also vented their anger at the situation through grafitti, with demands that British holidaymakers 'go home' appearing on the island.
Earlier this week, MailOnline reported that 'Go Home Tourist' had been scrawled in English over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in Nou Llevant, Mallorca, a neighbourhood that has seen a massive influx of foreign buyers over the past few years.
Anti-tourist graffiti also appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month.
Messages in English left on walls and benches in and around the resort included 'My misery your paradise' and 'Average salary in Canary Islands is 1,200 euros.'
Elsewhere, a picture was published in local press showing the words 'Go Home' on a hire car in Tenerife.
Travellers aged 16 and over already pay a daily charge of up to €4 (£3.45) when visiting the equally popular Balearic islands, such as Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza.
At last week's protest, participants held 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 per cent 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 said during the march in Tenerife's capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The archipelago of 2.2 million people was visited by nearly 14 million foreign tourists in 2023, up 13 per cent from the previous year, according to official data.