UK holidaymakers heading to popular destinations like Lanzarote and Tenerife in the Canary Islands have been issued a stern warning. Officials are worried that the influx of tourists is causing house prices to skyrocket and exploiting these favourite hotspots.
Despite tourism being on the rise, local Spanish authorities are concerned about increasing poverty rates and falling living standards for those who live there. It’s becoming difficult for people to afford homes in desirable areas of Tenerife and Lanzarote.
Earlier this week, the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, acknowledged that tourism, which is their “main industry”, could potentially harm them.
He called for all sectors to support other industries like farming and to increase wages so wealth is distributed more evenly, reports TeessideLive.
Sadly, nearly 36 per cent of the island’s residents – around 780,000 locals – are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. Clavijo admitted that “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer”, with three percent of the local population owning 58 per cent of the total wealth.
Casimiro Curbelo, the President of Cabildo de La Gomera who is responsible for the islands’ landscape and forests, doesn’t want to change the current tourism model. Instead, he wants to improve it to “achieve excellence”. The Canary Islands are the third most visited region in Spain worldwide.
He was shocked that while the Canary Islands’ tourism sector is booming, the general society is becoming poorer. He stressed the need to understand “what is wrong”.
Mr Clavijo emphasised that the tourism sector “must be aware” of its “responsibility” towards society as it benefits from a “landscape” that “belongs to everyone”. He highlighted that public administrations must provide “help”.
The Canary Islands, a popular holiday spot off Morocco’s coast in the North Atlantic Ocean, are a volcanic archipelago. The islands include the oldest island, Fuerteventura, which is over 20 million years old, and others like Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro.
Mr Curbelo said “there is no need to change” the tourism model in the Canary Islands, but it needs to be “improved” to “make it more competitive and sustainable”. He called on Mr Clavijo to collaborate with public institutions to tackle the “structural deficits” of poverty and unemployment.
Earlier this month, two academics at Las Palmas University told the Mirror about the challenges faced by these holiday hotspots, including a severe sewage problem, a critical housing shortage and road chaos.