THE CANARIES REOPEN THE DEBATE ON MASS TOURISM WITH RECORD VISITORS

More than 57,200 people attended last Saturday's protests in the islands against the tourism model under the slogan ‘Canarias tiene un límite’ (‘The Canary Islands have a limit’).

According to data from the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands provided to the Europa Press agency, the largest gathering took place in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with some 30,000 people. Meanwhile, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria some 14,000 people backed the initiative with 9,000 supporters in Arrecife (Lanzarote).

Furthermore, in Puerto del Rosario (Fuerteventura) the demonstration was attended by 2,800 people, 300 in San Sebastián de La Gomera and 120 in Valverde (El Hierro).

The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, announced a few days ago that he has not rejected the idea of finally implementing a tourist tax throughout the archipelago, although he acknowledged that this measure is not included in the government programme signed with the Partido Popular, which remains opposed to such a measure.

All this social and political debate comes at a time when foreign tourism is breaking records in the region. According to the Hotel Occupancy Survey published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), the number of foreign visitors staying in hotels exceeded the 800,000 mark for the first time in March. Specifically, the volume reached 830,341 tourists from outside Spain. In addition to them, there were 160,044 Spanish visitors. 

Taking into account all types of accommodation (including campsites, rural accommodation and holiday homes), the latest data available is for February and puts the number of foreign visitors at 1.025 billion, very close to the highs of October 2017 (1.050 billion). However, everything points to the fact that with the effect of Easter, it could also break records in March, especially bearing in mind that hotels are the main accommodation booked by foreigners and that they are at record highs.

2024-05-08T07:09:50Z dg43tfdfdgfd