Brits holidaying in Tenerife could be slapped with a tourist tax

• Canary Islands officials are considering a suggested €3pn charge for tourists
• Similar daily ‘tourist taxes’ are already in place in Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza 

British holidaymakers could soon be slapped with a daily ‘tourist tax’ when visiting the Canary Islands, local authorities have warned.

Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo suggested the government is considering suggestions of a €3 (approximately £2.60) per night charge for visitors, The Sun reported.

He said last Friday that while ‘ecotax is not included in the government program’ currently, it is ‘true’ that the government is ‘willing to discuss it’.

Travellers aged 16 and over already pay a daily charge of up to €4 (£3.45) when visiting equally popular Balearic islands, such as Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza.

Clavijo’s remark comes as locals are demanding that authorities axe several major tourism projects in Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands.

Thousands of residents protested on the island yesterday, calling for the Spanish island to temporarily limit tourist arrivals to stem a boom in short-term holiday rentals and hotel construction that is driving up housing costs for locals.

British holidaymakers could soon be slapped with a daily ‘tourist tax’ when visiting the Canary Islands, local authorities have warned – as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Tenerife on Saturday (pictured)

The demonstrators called for the Spanish island to temporarily limit tourist arrivals to stem a boom in short-term holiday rentals and hotel construction that is driving up housing costs for locals

Demonstrators said changes must be made to the tourism industry that accounts for 35 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the Canary Islands archipelago

Holding placards reading ‘People live here’ and ‘We don’t want to see our island die’, more than 50,000 people took to the streets of Tenerife on Saturday in protest against tourism on the island.

Demonstrators said changes must be made to the tourism industry that accounts for 35 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the Canary Islands archipelago.

‘It’s not a message against the tourist, but against a tourism model that doesn’t benefit this land and needs to be changed,’ one of the protesters said during the march in Tenerife’s capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Smaller marches were held elsewhere in the island group and other Spanish cities, all of them organised by about two dozen environmental organisations ahead of the peak summer holiday season.

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.

‘The authorities must immediately stop this corrupt and destructive model that depletes the resources and makes the economy more precarious. The Canary Islands have limits and people’s patience too,’ Antonio Bullon, one of the protest leaders, said.

The campaigners claim that the huge influx of tourists to the island is causing major environmental damage, driving down wages and squeezing locals out of cheap affordable housing, forcing dozens to live in tents and cars instead.

One female protestor at the march held up a sign which read: ‘Fourteen million tourists a year but 36 per cent of Canarians at risk of poverty.’

This comes as fears are growing over the health of the Tenerife hunger strikers, who are part of a wider protest campaign, as they enter their tenth day without food.

Demonstrators packed into Weyler Square in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz, the start point for a march on the Brit-popular holiday island

A woman raises her fist as she pounds the streets in protest against the levels of tourism in the holiday-isles

Canary Islanders took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago today to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism

Canary Island natives protesting as they call for a rethink of the island cluster’s tourism policies today

Locals say the island’s heavy reliance on tourism is making it hard for them to rent or buy homes

Tourists are continuing to travel to the islands despite growing resistance to their presence (pictured: tourists in Arona, Tenerife on Friday)

Tourists on rental tricycles give the thumbs up as they ride through Arona on Friday – as dissent grows about the Canaries’ reliance on tourism

Canary Islanders say the growth of holiday lets is driving locals out of the housing market (tourists in Arona pictured Friday)

The islands are threatened by sea pollution, traffic gridlock and lack of cheap affordable housing linked to the pushing-up of property prices because of Airbnb-style holiday lets

Protesters waved Canary Islands’ flags and blew vuvuzelas to make a deafening noise

The activists are pushing the local authorities to stop two tourist projects before they will end their fast; to stop the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife’s last virgin beaches called La Tejita and to change the tourist model to protect the island and prioritise the locals.

However, there were reports on Saturday that six activists, who have been on the hunger strike since last Thursday, now have vital signs that are outside normal limits meaning they are at risk of seriously compromising their health.

A nurse at the scene said: ‘The data is very alarming, continuing the strike could lead to irreparable neurological damage and even death.’

The names of those taking part in the hunger strike have so far been kept secret.

Female protestors revealed Saturday that they are harrassed and threatened by tourists and no longer ‘feel safe’ in their homeland.

‘I wouldn’t go to the south of the island alone, it is not safe for young women,’ one protestor told the Express.

Another activist Celia Quintero, 15, claimed they are pressured in school to accomodate British tourists.

Speaking to the Daily Express, she said that you had to learn English at school with lessons like Maths even being taught in the language because ‘you have to know English because we rely on tourism and to stay safe’.

But the tourism is not making her feel safe, she revealed that she was recently harrassed by a group of German tourists so much that she was forced to hide in a bar just to get away from them.

Estimates of 50,000 Canary Islanders took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago today to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism and demand their politicians take action.

Demonstrators packed into Weyler Square in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz, the start point for a march on the Brit-popular holiday island, just before midday Saturday with banners including one that said: ‘You enjoy we suffer’ in English.

Others said: ‘Where is the money from tourism?’ and ‘Tourist moratorium now.’

They waved Canary Islands’ flags and blew vuvuzelas to make a deafening noise.

Protests also got underway at the same time in the other islands in the archipelago, including Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, with support demos scheduled for the Spanish mainland in cities like Malaga and Madrid as well as London and Berlin.

The Canary Islands protests were organised under the slogan ‘Canarias Tiene Un Limite’ which in English translates as ‘The Canary Islands have a limit.’

The backdrop to the demos is an ongoing hunger strike six men and women began on April 11 outside a church in the northern Tenerife town of La Laguna

Official sources put the number of demonstrators in Tenerife at midday at around 10,000 people

One proposed project involves the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife’s last virgin beaches

Campaigners have been quick to distance themselves from anti-tourist graffiti which appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month

Flyers like this slamming holidaymakers are being stuck to buildings all over Tenerife

At the beginning of this week a picture was published in local press showing the words ‘Go Home’ on a hire car in Tenerife

A protestor speaks to the crowds as a sign in front reads: ‘In the Canary Islands, tourists use up to six times more water than any resident’

Graffiti in Tenerife tells tourists to go home amid a spate of anti-Brit graffiti in the holiday isles

The archipelago of 2.2 million people was visited by nearly 14 million foreign tourists in 2023, up 13 per cent from the previous year, according to official data.

Authorities in the islands are concerned about the impact on locals. A draft law expected to pass this year toughening the rules on short lets follows complaints from residents priced out of the housing market.

President Clavijo said on Friday he felt ‘proud’ that the region was a leading Spanish tourist destination, but acknowledged that more controls were needed as the sector continues to grow.

‘We can’t keep looking away. Otherwise, hotels will continue to open without any control,’ he told a press conference.

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