Rage in Spain falls on the planes

Anti-tourism movements are multiplying in Spain, the world’s second most-visited country, prompting authorities to try and reconcile the interests of locals and the lucrative sector.

Rallying under the slogan “The Canaries have a limit”, a collective of groups on the archipelago off northwest Africa are planning a slew of protests today.

The Canaries are known for volcanic landscapes, year-round sunshine and attract millions of visitors from all over the world.

Groups there want authorities to halt work on two new hotels on Tenerife, the largest and most developed of the archipelago’s seven islands.

They are also demanding that locals be given a greater say in the face of what they consider uncontrolled development which is harming the environment.

Several members of the collective, “Canaries Sold Out”, also began an “indefinite” hunger strike last week to put pressure on the authorities.

The Canaries received 16 million visitors last year, more than seven times its population of around 2.2 million people.

This is an unsustainable level given the archipelago’s limited resources, said Victor Martin, a spokesperson for the collective, calling it a “suicidal growth model”.

Similar movements have sprung up elsewhere in Spain and are active on social media.

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Slogans, fake signs and more

In the southern port of Malaga on the Costa del Sol, a centre of Spain’s decades-old “soy y playa” or “sun and beach” tourism model, stickers with unfriendly slogans such as “This used to be my home” and “Go home” have appeared on the walls and doors of tourist accommodations.

In Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, activists have put up fake signs at the entrances to some popular beaches warning in English of the risk of “falling rocks” or “dangerous jellyfish”.

Locals complain that a rise in accommodation listings on shortterm rental platforms such as Airbnb have worsened a housing shortage and caused rents to soar, especially in town centres.

 The influx of tourists also adds to noise and environmental pollution and taxes resources such as water, they add.

In the northeastern region of Catalonia, which declared a drought emergency in February, anger is growing over the pressure exerted on depleted water reserves by hotels on the Costa Brava.

“Our concern is to continue to grow tourism in Spain so that it is sustainable and does not generate social revulsion,” said the vicepresident of tourism association Exceltur, Jose Luis Zoreda, when asked about the movements.

Spain’s visitors’ records

The group said it expects Spain’s tourism sector will post record revenues of $215.4 billion (about R4 trillion) this year.

Before Covid hit the world’s travel industry in 2020, protest movements against overtourism had already emerged in Spain, mainly in Barcelona.

Now that pandemic travel restrictions have been lifted, tourism is back with a vengeance. Spain welcomed a record 85.1 million foreign visitors last year.

In response, several cities have taken measures to try to limit overcrowding. The northern seaside city of San Sebastian last month limited the size of tourist groups in the centre to 25 people and banned the use of loudspeakers during guided tours.

The southern city of Seville is mulling charging non-residents a fee to enter its landmark Plaza de Espana while Barcelona has removed a bus route popular with tourists from Google Maps to try to make more room for locals. – AFP

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