STORY: 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.
“We can’t cope with all this, it’s too much, too much for such a small island,” protester Sara Ines Marrero said of the model of mass tourism. “We also fight for decent housing, not to have to pay excessively high rents, just to be on our own land,” she added.
The organisations 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.
Among the protesters were six people on hunger strike, who attended the gathering on wheelchairs.
The collective, based in La Laguna, is opposed to a hotel construction project on the beach of La Tejita, south of the Island of Tenerife. Saturday was their 10th day on…