There was a scene in Celebrity Traitors where Scottish actor Mark Bonnar took a step away from his fellow celebs and eyed them suspiciously, trying to work out who the traitorous rogues in the pack were. In a world where misinformation, misdirection, and fake news are rife, it’s more important than ever that we all do a ‘Mark Bonnar’ every so often.
Take the news reports about overtourism on Tenerife and protests about ‘Canarias tiene un límite’ – The Canary Islands have a limit. According to activists, it’s clear, indisputable in fact, overtourism is the overriding issue on Tenerife. That’s what English language media tells us anyway, both within and outside the island.
The Canaries and Tenerife do have a limit, one that has been stretched way beyond breaking point. But it isn’t tourists who are the problem.
A brief summary of the issue
I’ve written about the protests before, so I’m not going to go over old ground. Instead, here’s a link to the problems and demands as specified by Ecologistas en Acción. UK media have picked up on concerns raised by John Beckley’s team at Canary Green. One of whom, Aurora Bus from the Netherlands, wrote this piece about the Canaries being at a crossroads. I’d argue that the crossroads was a distant speck in the rearview mirror. Both outline valid and serious problems which need to be addressed. And both also place the finger of blame on government inaction as well as too many tourists. The first is probably fair; however, the latter is either disingenuous, genuine ignorance, or deliberate misdirection. These might sound strong words, but they’re backed up by facts and not the emotional and populist rhetoric that tends to be liberally sprinkled around the many copycat ‘Tenerife has too many tourists’ articles.
A personal view
When Andy and I returned to Tenerife to update our guidebooks, the protests, and reasons for them, were often in my thoughts as we walked the streets of towns and cities and across the island while checking and updating our route directions. The majority of trails we walked were as people-free as ever, whereas the traditional towns, if anything, seemed to have fewer visitors on their streets than when we last tread them. Unlike many locations we’ve visited around Europe over the last decade, we mostly strolled into restaurants without prior reservation. The times we did book, as a precaution, we generally found ourselves in restaurants where only a couple of other tables were occupied. Nowhere did we encounter anti-tourist sentiment. Tinerfeños were as friendly and welcoming as ever. However, we did hear tales about the unwelcoming and, in one instance, unacceptable behaviour of some immigrant (expat) residents (of various nationalities) toward visitors. The latter had my blood boiling as these people do not reflect the Tenerife I love. But this is anecdotal, and our experiences were mainly in traditional areas whereas the focus of protests tends to be in purpose-built tourist resorts.
Why Tenerife protests are unfair on tourists
I planned to use my own experiences to explore the motives and claims of some of the protests. However, when I started researching official sites to update some of the factual details in our Real Tenerife Guidebook, I kept coming across information that, as well as confirming my own experiences, turned some overtourism claims completely on their head.
Natural spaces
One related to the exploitation of natural spaces for tourism. It is true swathes of southern coastal areas are in danger of being devoured. But official stats reveal 90% of overnight stays in the Canaries are concentrated in just 1.76% of the islands’ land mass. Years ago, while trying to change the perception of Tenerife, Andy and I gave a presentation to a UK specialist tour company where I displayed an image of Tenerife with the area where most tourist resorts are located circled. It was designed to show the greatest part of the island lay outside the main tourist conurbation. The slide below (courtesy of the report) illustrates this even better. The orange areas highlight where most tourists are congregated.
Traffic Congestion
Traffic congestion is a prime issue. The finger of blame again points at tourists. The authors of various government reports into sustainability (a team of researchers from La Laguna and Las Palmas Universities) acknowledge there is a problem caused by tourism, especially relating to access to some natural touristic hotspots – Cruz del Carmen in Anaga is currently in the local news because of traffic. Accessing Anaga from the west is a nightmare. We experienced it a couple of years ago, the queue of traffic snaking back for miles. Once past Cruz del Carmen, there wasn’t a problem. But they also conclude: ‘In the Canary Islands, there isn’t a general problem of congestion and over-tourism.’
In reality, the worst congestion is found on the TF5 between Puerto de la Cruz and La Laguna, and also on the TF1 in the south between the southwest resorts and the airport. Protesters point out that a ten-minute drive can turn into one which last an hour-and-a-half. But, as one Canarian journalist wrote, ‘How many tourists are on the road at the most congested times?’ Their answer was, ‘Hardly any.’ Like many places these days, car ownership has rocketed; on Tenerife there are around 850 cars for every 1000 residents. Commuters cause the traffic jams in urban areas, not tourists.
Impact of population explosion
Reports also state tourists are not the main source of the problem when it comes to resources such as water. It isn’t rocket science to understand why the authors reached this conclusion. There has been a population explosion of atomic bomb proportions in some parts of southern Tenerife in the last twenty-five years. The most recent census (2024) suggests that if current trends continue, Tenerife’s population will exceed one million by 2032. The reason is some southern municipalities (Adeje, Arona, and Granadilla de Abona) are expanding at an unsustainable rate. Since 2000, the population in municipalities where the main tourist resorts are located has increased by a staggering 150,000. Contrastingly, in more traditional areas, the increase is significantly lower or has even dropped. Garachico, for example, has experienced a loss of 568 residents.
For the first time in Tenerife’s history, the population in the south exceeds that of the north. Whereas one area has grown organically over centuries, the other hasn’t, and neither has the infrastructure to support it. One of the consequences of this is an over-inflated hike in house prices; one that bears no relation to other areas of Spain. A recent report by Fotocasa revealed the price of a house in parts of Fañabe in Costa Adeje is up to three times higher than the national average. Prices in neighbouring Arona aren’t much lower. Is it any surprise locals can’t afford houses in these sought-after locations?
When I hear some protests about there being too many tourists in the south of Tenerife, I’m reminded of the people who move to Glastonbury then complain there’s a noisy music festival there. I wonder if one of the motives of some protests is deflection away from the real source of the problem.
Protests could harm Tenerife
I’ve voiced frustration previously that some activists are guilty of applying an umbrella term, i.e. the Canary Islands, when in fact their beef is mostly with a specific area. The problem with this is most potential visitors, and many English-speaking residents, get their information from the same limited sources. That means it is often highly subjective and can omit key facts. I haven’t seen much of what I’ve detailed above referenced in English publications or activist websites. The likes of Fodors should know better than to regurgitate without comprehensive fact-checking. Sadly, that they didn’t is no surprise as there is a lack of true specialism in travel writing these days.
A worrying problem is that discerning travellers are the ones most likely to pay heed to articles advising them not to travel to destinations classed as suffering from overtourism. Ironically, discerning travellers are exactly the type of visitors protesters claim they want to attract. Holidaymakers who are just after somewhere sunny and warm are less likely to take any notice.
I mentioned that some traditional towns appeared to have fewer visitors. That was our perception during our visit. Since returning to Britain, I’ve seen official statistics confirming it was more than a perception. While tourist figures in resorts continue to rise, the numbers visiting some of Tenerife’s historic towns have fallen.
If traditional parts of Tenerife suffer as a result of questionable protests about tourists visiting an area developed specifically for tourism, it will be a tragedy and a travesty.
I’ll leave the final comment to the researchers of the sustainability reports: ‘It would be incorrect to claim that tourism is the main cause of the challenges facing the Canary Islands.’
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