Ecologistas en Acción denounces in FITUR the impacts of mass tourism

Activists from Ecologistas en Acción have unfolded this Saturday, in front of the entrance of IFEMA where the International Tourism Fair (FITUR) is being held, a giant banner that read "Mass tourism equals poverty." With this action, the environmental organization denounces that the model of tourist exploitation, which FITUR represents, is an absolutely unsustainable model that plunders and degrades the territory and its ecosystems, generating enormous inequality due to an unfair distribution of wealth and the impacts produced.

At the same time and in a coordinated manner, activists from different groups that make up the Canary Common Front (such as Scientific Rebellion, the Kellys Union Tenerife or the Tenants' Union of Tenerife), together with the Canary Diaspora in Brega, have unfurled a banner with the slogan "We are going on strike" while developing a performance in which chambermaids represented their daily work with the associated problems. They have also distributed flyers with data on the situation of the archipelago: job insecurity, poverty, housing and destruction of the environment. They demand an improvement in working conditions in the sector and demand a change in the tourism model.

Ecologistas en Acción points out that, compared to the millionaire income of companies associated with the tourism sector, those who work in it endure starvation wages, endless days and a disproportionate workload. The commitment to increase the number of visitors in an unlimited way translates into a commodification of public spaces and an incessant urbanization of the territory, with macro-projects that deteriorate both coastal and rural interior areas. The environmental organization also highlights that, despite the continuous records of tourist arrivals, hotel occupancy and the millionaire income they generate, the reality of the population is different: starvation wages, poverty, unemployment and rising cost of living. The 2021 salary statistics from the INE reveal that in the hospitality sector it barely exceeds the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI).

Since the approval of the Coasts Law of 1988, the area of urbanized coast has doubled, going from 240,000 to 530,000 hectares, reaching an urbanization of 40.9% in the most touristy coastal provinces. Therefore, Ecologistas en Acción warns that 36.5% of the beach line is urbanized in Spain, and more than a third of the surrounding ecosystems have been destroyed by the current model of production and consumption largely linked to mass tourism.

The environmental organization points to the impact of this model on the right to housing as one of the most serious social problems. The proliferation of vacation homes in every corner has touristified towns and residential neighborhoods where the resident population lived. This fact, together with the lack of regulation and foresight by the administrations, has generated a strong social problem that only worsens: the lack of affordable housing. The use of these for temporary rentals associated with tourism causes an enormous shortage of housing intended for residential and long-term use, so the resident population is seeing its constitutional right to access housing diminished.

Ecologistas en Acción also denounces that global tourist activity entails a carbon footprint that exceeds 4.5 billion tons of CO2 (2013), which is four times more than expected and generates 8% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are released into the atmosphere, directly responsible for climate change. A large part of these emissions come from aviation, which has reached 283 million passengers in 2023. Despite this, AENA intends to expand seven Spanish airports and increase tourist arrival capacity. In addition, Spanish ports have broken a historical record in 2023 by registering more than 12 million cruise passengers. Cruises, advertised as a sustainable mobility option, are becoming more and more frequent, despite being considered one of the most polluting forms of transport due to their dependence on fossil heavy fuel.

"The pressure to which both the population and the territory are subjected has generated a widespread and growing discomfort among citizens who suffer daily the consequences of the inaction of public institutions, which do not put a stop to a situation that has exceeded all limits and that increasingly strains the lives of our people," denounce from the environmental organization.

Ecologistas en Acción has been demanding for years measures to conserve protected natural spaces and limit mass tourism, such as ecotaxes, moratoriums or tourist and vacation caps, the urgent regulation and drastic limitation of tourist rentals or the prohibition of the acquisition of homes by people not resident in the territory or investment funds.