As of: March 7, 2024, 3:00 p.m
By: Franziska Kaindl
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In the Canary Islands, dissatisfaction with tourists is growing.
At the weekend, locals even protested with graffiti at the popular holiday resort of Palm-Mar.
Tourism is an important source of income for the Canary Island of Tenerife.
In the pre-Corona year of 2019, it accounted for around 35 percent of the gross domestic product and provided 45 percent of jobs, according to a report in the
Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ)
.
And even after the pandemic, the Spanish holiday islands are popular with travelers, including from Germany.
According to the
German Travel Association (DRV),
Spain - including the Canary Islands - is one of the most popular travel destinations for summer holidays in 2024. But where there is light, there is also shadow.
The masses of tourists are causing problems for the locals, as current protests show.
Graffiti protest on Tenerife: “Tourists, go home”
The holiday resort of Palm-Mar is apparently fed up with tourists.
© Atmán Victor/Imago
On Sunday morning (March 3), locals and tourists at the resort of Palm-Mar in the south of the island noticed various graffiti sprayed on benches and walls in plain view across the resort.
The messages could hardly be clearer: “Tourists, go home”, “My misery is your paradise” or “Tourists, respect my country” were some of them.
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Tourists are good for the economy - but they also cause prices to rise
According to the online portal
Canary Weekly,
residents are aware of the need for tourism in Tenerife for a flourishing economy.
However, many now believe that the “government is taking things too far and flooding the island,” they say.
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The boom has unpleasant side effects: Landlords are turning more and more to lucrative holiday rentals, so that there is little living space available for locals.
Traffic on the roads comes to a standstill due to the large number of rental cars in which tourists travel.
And yet hotels and holiday resorts would receive the “green light” to attract even more people to the island.
“The average salary in the Canary Islands is 1,200 euros,” complains one of the protest graffiti.
In view of the increased cost of living, according to
Canary Weekly,
this is not enough - last year the consumer price index (CPI) on the island rose by 5.8 percent, as the online portal
Tenerife News
reports.
A historic increase.
However, salaries were only increased by an average of 3.57 percent.
This means that despite having more money in their accounts, locals can afford less overall.
According to Canary Weekly,
there is no improvement in the situation
in sight.