20th June 2024
Most of us with access to a TV, newsfeed or social media will have recently seen stories covering the supposed public protests against tourism in Tenerife. As usual with anything tourist-related in Spain, the lower brow media outlets never fail to jump on such stories and exaggerate or spin them in order to generate hysteria and clickbait. But with many questioning whether the island has really risen up against tourists, perhaps some context and facts will put things into their true perspective.
On Saturday 20th April, a demonstration took place in the city of Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife. Of immediate interest is that the city is approximately 75 kilometres from the main tourist areas of Adeje and Arona in the south. The city’s only real tourism in the city are the occasional cruise ships and a daily handful of tourists expanding their horizons away from the beach. It was also nowhere near any government building with influence over tourist activities. So why hold the demonstration there, rather than directly in a tourist area?
According to official sources, attendance at the protest was approximately 50,000, although many have claimed that figure was vastly exaggerated by the hysteria-loving media. However, an interesting fact that was admitted by the media was that many of the attendees were not even from Tenerife, an island with an effective population in excess of 1.3 million. Many protestors were apparently shipped in from the other islands or even from mainland Spain. It seems strange that an island supposedly rising up against tourism could not even cobble together less than 4% of its supposedly disgruntled population for such an important protest and instead needed to ship in ‘extras’ from outside.
The truth, somewhat unsurprisingly, is that the vast majority of Tinerfeños either support tourism or embrace it as a means to an end. And it’s not hard to see why. 40% of all jobs on the island are directly serving the tourist sector with many more indirectly serving the industry. Tourism represents 35% of the island’s total economy. And in the south of the island, the figures for each category are substantially higher.
In the week after the protest, several rags, including the UK’s ‘Daily Express’ started running with sensationalist fake news headlines such as: “Spain Tourism Crisis as ‘ALL’ UK Travel Operators URGED to cancel holidays” (referring exclusively to Tenerife and the Balearic Islands). They conveniently failed to disclose who, other than the rag paper itself, was supposedly doing the ‘urging’. This also sits entirely at odds with more balanced coverage, such as from the BBC, who quote the leaders of the protest as saying “They stress they are NOT against the tourism industry, which makes up 35% of the Canaries’ economy”. Indeed, many locals who were interviewed separately after the protest are baffled by the irrational attack on tourism, with some going so far as to label the protestors ‘ignorant idiots’.
So if it’s not really about tourism, what’s really going on here? To answer that, we need to identify and study the real negative issues and problems that the protestors claim to be experiencing. So let’s look at some of the main issues:
1. Housing availability and cost for local residents:
The argument run by certain agitators (and notably never challenged by either the government or large hotel groups) is that the rise in tourism is preventing local workers from finding housing close to their places of work (the majority of which work in large hotels and restaurant chains). This age-old trope is certainly not exclusive to Tenerife and is prevalent in tourist areas around the world. Cornwall in the UK is a classic example. But with an inevitable rise in population and a limit to land available for residential accommodation, do relatively low-paid workers in the 2020’s have an inherent right to live in the centre of the desirable tourist-zone, simply because it’s more convenient for them, or because their grandparents used to live there 50 years ago when it was a sleepy fishing village? Many workers complain about having to drive for 20 or 30 minutes to reach work. Yet, this would be considered a very short and welcome daily commute in most European cities.
But more importantly, is the perceived lack of available housing really the fault of tourists taking up the available accommodation? Whilst it is doubtless a contributing factor, there appear to be larger factors at play.
Firstly, sheer population increase (i.e. worldwide) is a substantial factor. Another is the dogged determination of the authorities to impose moratoriums on building new apartments or affordable accommodation, all the while dishing out building licences like candy to various 5 star hotel chains to build sprawling monstrosity resorts, each occupying plots large enough to build apartment blocks that could house 20% – 30% of all workers in the tourist zone. Yet more and more huge hotels keep springing up, dragging more and more low-paid workers into the tourist areas on a daily basis.
Yet the big hotels refuse to accept any contributory blame and instead point the finger solely at the growth of self-catering holiday lets (which are, surprise surprise, their main competition). The government conveniently sides with the hotelier lobbyists and repeatedly proposes ridiculous restrictions on private self-catering rentals, which to date have been unenforceable, or abandoned as being unworkable, or in the prominent case of the 7/1995 ‘Sole Agent’ legislation, being completely illegal under EU Law and forcing the government into a humiliating climb-down by dropping some 970 prosecution cases against owners back in 2014. Once again, the government is now peddling new inept legislation against self-catering tourist rentals, which all but prohibit renting an apartment to tourists other than on every alternate Monday between the hours of 10pm and 11pm, whilst standing on one leg and requiring 90% of your clients to be disabled. All the while, big hotels are given a free pass and a leg up whilst laughing into their champagne at the next shareholders party.
As to economic impact, self-catering by and large serves the immediate community. The tourists catch taxis and buses rather than ride in hotel coaches. They spend money in local shops, bars, restaurants and supermarkets, whereas many hotels try to tie their guests to all-inclusive deals whereby they contribute little or nothing to the local economy and all profit goes to the hotelier shareholders languishing in offshore tax havens. Yet neither the government nor the hoteliers will hear a word said against their self-serving business model. In their eyes, self-catering competition is the perfect scapegoat and the only problem.
Another fact that the agitators conveniently overlook is that many residential properties in the tourist areas are actually occupied by local residents. The difference is that historical Canarian tenants are being substantially usurped by a huge uptick in UK or European citizens who are moving to Tenerife in record numbers for a better life, retirement or remote working (digital nomads etc). 99% of these newcomers are legal residents who are paying taxes and contributing towards the local economy. We have yet to meet one claiming benefits in Tenerife. They are certainly not ‘tourists’ by any definition.
So long as Spain continues its love affair with the open-border EU, such residents will continue to move to paradise in ever-increasing droves, taking up accommodation and local jobs. Clearly, tourists are not to blame here. But the protestors and agitators fail to mention foreign EU residents. This is an unsurprising omission on their part, given that over half a million Spanish nationals currently live in the UK and even more live across the rest of the EU.
Another factor conveniently swept under the rug is the growing number of property owners (including Canarian owners themselves) who refuse to rent their properties to Canarians or South Americans unless they appear affluent or have good job contracts. This is sadly due to a significant and growing minority of Canarians and other Spanish-speaking immigrants who have learnt that they can ‘game’ the legal system by stopping their rent payments and then play for time in the socialist courts, knowing it could take anywhere up to 5 years before they are evicted. The ever-growing number of court-protected illegal squatters also adds motivation for owners to have their properties occupied and secured by reliable and paying occupants. This leaves owners with two options, firstly by renting to the growing number of UK or EU immigrant residents who by and large pay their rent and leave when their contract expires, or secondly, renting short-term to tourists via platforms such as AirBnB. Ask any residential letting agent and they will tell you of dozens of their clients who would gladly rent their properties to locals as soon as the government changes the law to provide them with the basic right to evict deadbeat tenants and squatters.
Readers may also be interested to learn that according to Fotocasa, residential rental prices in Tenerife actually dropped by 7.6% in the year to May 2024, despite claims from the agitators that rents are becoming increasingly unaffordable. Similarly, rent inflation in Tenerife averaged from 2008 to 2022 is in line with most other European countries.
The clear conclusion to be drawn is that any perceived unaffordability and/or lack of accommodation for workers in the tourist areas is not directly related to tourists or tourism.
2. Traffic Congestion and Parking:
This ‘biggie’ follows on seamlessly from issue number 1 above. The argument most commonly bandied around is that increased tourist numbers are clogging up our roads and our parking spaces, leaving hard-working locals stuck in traffic and unable to park close to their place of work when they arrive. But the reality is somewhat different.
Firstly, the number of cars on the island has multiplied over the past 20 years. This is largely due to increased affluence among Canarians (which was ironically funded by tourism). 20 years ago, the typical Canarian family might own one car, or in many cases, no car at all. Today, even modest-income families own two or more cars. The island’s car numbers have further expanded due to a substantial increase in car imports from cheaper outside sources. Inflated second hand prices in Tenerife for even the most basic desirable car persuade many buyers to purchase elsewhere in Europe for up to 50% – 60% cheaper and then pay approximately 26% in customs import duties. Tenerife is also filled with old jalopies that would have been scrapped years ago in Germany or UK, but in Tenerife are somehow still on the road and astonishingly commanding 4 figure sums. This has led to a glut of cars on the island.
In fairness, tourist rental car numbers have increased too, but they remain a small percentage of overall vehicles on the road. To prove this, simply watch the TF1 motorway passing through the tourist zone from 4pm to 6pm any afternoon. The vast majority of vehicles are clearly local residents in cars and vans, a large number of which are sole occupant drivers (carpool schemes being basically non-existent in Tenerife). Then there are the delivery vans, lorries and buses, which still visibly dwarf the far smaller number of tourist coaches, tourist rental cars and taxis. Yet it is easier to blame tourism than focus on why so many local residents need to be on the road in the first place. The insistence by certain businesses on maintaining the antiquated ‘afternoon siesta’ closing from 1pm – 4pm also doesn’t help the situation, when hundreds of shop workers all drive home for lunch or to run their errands.
However, even the current high number of vehicles would be sustainable with a modicum of common sense, foresight and infrastructure. The largest contributor towards the traffic problems is clearly three decades of abject incompetence and lack of vision on the part of the authorities. Every day, hundreds of thousands of residents and tourists alike are forced to suffer the prehistoric creaking infrastructure of an island living in denial. Instead of building new roads and car parks, creating efficient park-and-rides, incentivising car-pooling, improving public transport and airport access and expanding motorways, the authorities are instead obsessed with ridiculous one-way-systems, installing pretty oversized pedestrian areas, 2 year junction ‘improvement works’ and removing every public parking space they can find. Locals, being unable to afford the ridiculous private car park charges, drive round in circles for 30 minutes looking for one of the few remaining free parking spaces, creating yet more unnecessary congestion and environmental damage in the process.
Even out of town, the problems are glaringly apparent. The ‘improvements’ at the Las Chafiras junctions are now the joke of the island. Completion of the island’s mythical ring-road is still incomplete and is now almost 10 years behind schedule. Even the recently opened section between Adeje and Guia de Isora was so far behind schedule that the government was able to rent out several kilometres of closed, unused highway to the producers of the Fast & Furious 6 movie for their ‘tank’ scene. Last time I checked, none of these can be blamed on ‘tourism’.
As for the traffic contribution from tourists, Tenerife is one of the few tourist destinations in the world that has no dedicated airport transport connections serving the tourist areas. There is no train, nor is there any comprehensive bus network (the latter one they did try a decade ago with the ‘Aerobus’ project, but they later kowtowed weakly to the militant taxi organisations who claimed it was ‘taking food out of their mouths’). Meanwhile, many tourist coaches lay empty as more tourists now choose to travel independently rather than choosing costly and inflexible package holidays. This results in a ridiculous 1 hour queue for taxis at the airport during peak periods. Despite limited recent concessions, taxis are still generally not allowed to pick up outside of their home borough, resulting in unnecessary return journeys with an empty taxi.
As with so many social and infrastructure problems, most solutions are to an extent in the hands of inept and incompetent authorities. Allowing agitators to blame tourism clearly provides a convenient scapegoat and deflection from their own incompetence. Meanwhile, any blame apportioned to ‘tourism’ or any resultant sanctions or restrictions placed thereon must be shared pro-rata by the hotel industry and not simply forced upon self-catering owners. Banning ‘all inclusive’ packages would be a very good start and would be welcomed by the entire local economy.