Thousands protest against overtourism in Spain's Canary Islands

By Borja Suarez and Corina Pons

GRAN CANARIA, Spain (Reuters) - Thousands of people protested against mass tourism in Spain's Canary Islands on Sunday, urging authorities to limit the number of visitors to protect local residents from soaring housing costs, traffic congestion and overburdened services.

Marching under the banner "Canaries have a limit", demonstrators took to the streets in all of the archipelago's main islands and in several cities in mainland Spain. Some chanted about the effects of tourism on water supplies.

"Tourism is very important for the Canary Islands, but we have to realise that the collapse is total," Juan Francisco Galindo, a hotel manager in Tenerife, told Reuters.

His father owns a small island property on which the local administration issued an expropriation order in 2023 due to the approval of a luxury hotel complex project.

"Those 70 square metres (750 square feet) that they want to expropriate are all my father has. His health situation has deteriorated since this happened," he said.

More than 1 million foreign tourists visit the Canary Islands each month, compared to a local population of 2.2 million, according to official data.

Spain, which had a record number of tourist arrivals in 2024, expects even more visitors this year.

Galindo said the number of hotel beds had tripled since the 1970s when the islands' infrastructure was built, leading to sky-rocketing housing costs, traffic jams and limited access to health services during peak tourism season.

Spain has witnessed several protests against overtourism in other popular holiday destinations, including Mallorca, Barcelona and Malaga. Similar demonstrations were held in the Canaries last year.

Sirlene Alonso, a lawyer who lives in Gran Canaria, criticised the regional government's plans to build more housing instead of limiting tourist numbers.

"The goal is not tourism quality, but that more and more tourists come. The number of tourists and people who come to live here is crushing us," she said.

Canary Island officials travelled this week to Brussels to seek European Union funds for affordable housing in the region's outermost areas.

(Reporting by Borja Suarez in Gran Canaria and Corina Pons in Madrid, Writing by Emma Pinedo and Ana Cantero; Editing by Helen Popper)