Thousands of people took to the streets of the Canary Islands on Sunday in the latest mass protest against overtourism.
Co-ordinated marches took place on all of the islands and in some cities in mainland Spain, starting at 11am.
Marching under the banner ‘Canaries have a limit’, the demonstrators chanted about the effects of tourism on local services, including water supplies, housing and transport.
“Tourism is very important for the Canary Islands, but we have to realise that the collapse is total,” Juan Francisco Galindo, a hotel manager in Tenerife, told the news organisation Reuters.
Other demonstrators complained of a lack of water in villages, due to the number of visitors draining the supply.
Just 2.2 million people live in the Canary Islands, but they’re visited by 18 million tourists a year and locals argue they can’t cope with the strain on resources.
Activists have called for a cap on visitor numbers and a ban on new hotels or tourism apartment complexes, along with a cap on the number of homes bought by foreigners.
A message that appeared to be from TUI, advising its clients to avoid certain areas where Sunday’s protests were taking place, was posted on Facebook by a guest who claimed to have received the notification. It warned the protest would be ‘large’ with ‘lots of noise’, adding that it would ensure all excursions avoided the areas. However, TUI has not confirmed it sent the message.
Earlier this month, TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel admitted anti-tourism protests in the Canaries are a cause for concern, but he insisted tour operators aren’t to blame.
Instead, he blamed online peer-to-peer holiday letting platforms, like Airbnb, for the lack of affordable housing since apartments are rented out to tourists rather than made available to locals.
“What worries us is that unregulated tourism is causing people to take to the streets and worry about their future,” he said. “For a long time, individual holidays in holiday apartments were considered particularly cool, but they pose great challenges for the islands.”
He said TUI is in ‘constant contact’ with the regional Government of the Canary Islands and has offered to ‘discuss where we as TUI can make a stronger contribution’.
*Image of protest on 18 May 2025 from Mr TravelOn’s Youtube channel
