Protestors planning a repeat of anti-mass tourism demonstrations across the Canary Islands this weekend have vowed to vent their anger on their political leaders, not holidaymakers.
Thousands of people took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago’s eight islands on April 20th, but chose to hold their marches in the capitals.
This Sunday they will take their campaign to the heart of the tourist resorts loved by Irish and British visitors in a “nightmare scenario” for the region’s political leaders.
In Tenerife, protestors will start marching at midday with placards and banners from a shopping centre in Playa de las Americas in the south of the island.
And on neighbouring Gran Canaria, local organisers have picked the holiday resort of Maspalomas as the focus for their demo at the same time.
The march in Lanzarote will begin outside a hotel in the tourist town of Puerto del Carmen which is a favourite Irish holiday destination. In Fuerteventura, protestors have picked the popular holiday resort of Corralejo to make their voices heard.
Some foreign tourists faced abuse during marches and protest actions earlier this year in places like Majorca, where the booing and jeering of some holidaymakers as they ate evening meals in a square on the island capital Palma led to organisers making a public apology.
But ahead of the new demos in the Canary Islands, sympathisers have insisted there is no intention to mistreat tourists and the idea of focusing on the holiday heartlands of the islands is to “educate” visitors about some of the problems over-saturation is causing the sunshine destination.
Engineer Brian Harrison, who originally hails from Bridgend in Wales but moved to Tenerife in 1991 and is actively involved in environmental campaigning, said: “I’m one of many expats who will be attending Sunday’s demonstration.
“Protests will be taking place across all the eight Canary Islands, including La Graciosa, like in April, and there will be support actions in some cities in mainland Spain and other places in Europe.
“It’s impossible to tell if it will be as big as the one back in April, but in Tenerife alone I’m expecting a good turnout and am hopeful the number of people protesting is going to be in the many thousands.
“We’re taking our protest to the holiday heartlands this time round and not the island capitals to educate visitors to the fact there’s serious problems here, but also because it poses the biggest nightmare to our political leaders that anti-mass-tourism demos are going on in tourist areas.
“These politicians go to tourism trade shows around Europe promoting the islands as a paradise and the last thing they want is something like this.”
