Lanzarote and Tenerife still want tourists despite 'stay away' warning issued

The Canary Islands Tourist Board has hit back at claims that too many tourists are spoiling the idyllic Spanish island for locals and the environment.

Earlier this week, it was reported that some locals, as well as urban planners and environmental groups had said the region, which includes holiday islands Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, is close to systematic collapse due to the millions that visit each year.

Speaking for Ben Magec-Ecologists in Action, Eugenio Reyes said: "The Canary Islands territory was more than overexploited. We had exceeded the carrying capacity of the territory by seven times, resulting in a scenario of systemic collapse due to the urban development structure."

Some locals have also been saying that tourism is ruining their own living standard on the islands with increased cost of living and a lack of public services. 

One local took to X and said: "We [the Canary Islands] absorb an enormous amount of this tourism for little in exchange: s**t jobs and wages, territorial destruction, ecocide and terrible public services because ‘we don't pull our weight’. When will this madness end?"

Another woman said "Islanders can’t live there due to tourism" and urged holidaymakers, like the thousands from Ireland every year, to "stay away."

The slogan 'tourists go home' has begun trending in Tenerife where protests have taken place calling for an eco tax for tourists.

The protesters have warned that sewage spills, traffic jams and environmental damage caused by over-tourism and new hotel complexes along the popular beaches of south Tenerife were starting to diminish the natural wonder of the island.

However, the Canary Islands Tourist Board has defended the level of tourism on the islands.

In a statement, a spokesperson said: "The Canary Islands received 14.6 million tourists until November 2023. Estimating the month of December, for which the data is not yet available, we can say that the Canary Islands would have received 16.2 million tourists during the year 2023.

"A figure that had already been reached in 2017, three years before the pandemic was declared, when 16 million tourists arrived on the islands. In fact, between 2017 and 2020, the range of visitors that the Canary Islands received was between 16 million and 15.1 million, never a lower amount."

They went on to say that "in no case can the number of tourists be confused with the number of passengers transiting through the Canary Islands airports, which, as AENA reported, was 48.4 million in 2023. But it must be taken into account that all passengers are not tourists and that round trips are taken into account, as well as inter-island air traffic."

As for last year 2023, the monthly distribution of tourists was as follows:

"The influx of tourists is very stable throughout the year, with hardly any seasonality. Nationalities alternate and net balances are compensated," the tourism spokesperson said.

"This means the presence of 312,216 tourists in the Canary Islands daily, so the pressure on the territory and its resources and the local population is much less than in other destinations that concentrate the arrival of tourists in specific periods of the year."

They also pointed out the climate action taken in the region to mitigate environmental impacts.

"Our destination has been a pioneer in taking on the goals and commitments set out in the Glasgow Declaration, which pursues Net Zero by 2050. We were the first Spanish region to adhere to this commitment with a Climate Action Plan. 

"In addition, we have made the digital tool Journey to Decarbonisation available to tourism companies, which will allow the sector to measure and reduce its carbon footprint," they concluded.