Six of the eight Canary Islands have already joined the mobilizations against mass tourism and to demand a change of model called for next Sunday, October 20 throughout the archipelago, all except La Gomera and La Graciosa. The initiative has also gone beyond the island borders and has reached the cities of Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Granada and Berlin, the German capital.
Among them, the collective Lanzarote has a limit has called on the population to mobilize in the tourist area of Puerto del Carmen at 12:00 hours from the Plaza de Las Naciones, in Los Pocillos, to the Hotel Fariones to demand measures to change the current tourism model.
Thus, they state that they are proposing a new mobilization after understanding that the institutions "have ignored" the demands demanded by the citizens last April 20. "They were full of talk about rethinking the model, but the problems have not stopped getting worse, such as with the awards and distinctions and attempts to regulate projects declared illegal by the Justice." Meanwhile, they state that the "table of experts", promoted by the regional Executive is "a charade", while they have stressed that "those who have benefited from this unfair system will not be the ones to change it."
In a final manifesto to ask the population to participate in the protests, Canarias tiene un límite has defended that the concentration points to tourism as "the epicenter of the destructive model" and "because it is where extreme inequality manifests itself most strongly." In addition, they justify that the mobilizations are carried out in tourist areas because they want to convey the situation of the islands to tourists.
What are they looking to achieve with the mobilizations?
The convening groups on the island of Lanzarote state that what they are looking to achieve is a tourist and vacation moratorium, the paralysis of illegal projects, a housing law against speculation, the conservation of natural spaces, a real eco-tax, zero discharges into the sea and achieve dignified and fair energy sovereignty.
Why are the groups calling for mobilization this October 20?
"We speak for many when we say that we miss the Canary Islands", began the manifesto of the mobilizations of last April 20, where 200,000 people took to the streets of the eight to demand an economic model. The difficulty in accessing housing, the high rates of poverty on the islands, the management of water and water stress, the loss of land and coastline, population growth, tourist overcrowding, discharges of sewage into the sea, the overload of work of the cleaning ladies, long-term unemployment and poverty rates, the loss of biodiversity and climate change are among the reasons that have pushed different groups to convene these mobilizations again.
The arrival of tourists to the Canary Islands is at its peak. Lanzarote has received between January and August of this year, 2.2 million tourists, which represents a growth of 7.5% compared to the same period last year.
According to the argument published by the organizer Canarias tiene un límite, "tourists consume six times more water than a neighbor. They consume 800 liters per day compared to 127 liters for residents", he points out, echoing the study Responsible Water Consumption, the great challenge of tourism.
To this is added another reality, that of the discharge of wastewater into the sea and the consequences that this has for the biodiversity of the area: "72% of the wastewater discharge points into the sea registered in the Canary Islands are not authorized", the group states.
Thus, the current context in the islands is conditioned by environmental infractions, with around 38,000 infractions of this type committed in the archipelago between 2001 and 2020.
According to these data, 45.93% of environmental crimes are related to illegal constructions and works. In addition to the infractions committed by travelers in protected natural spaces, "which in many cases are not sanctioned."
To this is added the current housing crisis suffered by the islands, where different realities coexist: empty homes, according to the most recent data from the National Institute of Statistics, Lanzarote has 19,986 empty homes; vacation homes, which have grown by 77% on the island in a year and four months to reach 9,200 tourist homes; the purchase of homes by foreigners, who acquire one in four homes in the Canary Islands; and the rise in housing prices for sale and rent, which has considerably reduced the supply in Lanzarote and forces young Canarians to spend their entire salary and 5% more on rent.
To this, Canarias tiene un límite adds the data on poverty and risk of exclusion in the islands. For example, the most up-to-date figures show that the archipelago is the second autonomous community with the highest poverty rate in Spain, with one in three people at risk of social exclusion.
In addition, according to an Oxfam report, 13.8% of Canarian workers, dedicated to sectors such as agriculture, domestic work, hospitality and construction, are in poverty.