Tenerife wants the tourists to bugger off.
Tourists have been met with a stern order to go home by locals in Tenerife fed up with the overwhelmed amenities and rising house prices.
Messages like ‘Tourists go home,’ ‘My misery your paradise,’ and ‘Average salary in Canary Islands is 1,200’ were slapped onto walls in Palm-Mar, a small town in the largest of the Canary Islands. Tourism, which is usually seen as the lifeblood and money-maker of the Canaries especially in the south of Tenerife, has become an increasingly hot topic in recent months as residents are warning that the hotspots are ‘facing collapse’.
I’ve never been and it isn’t on my list, so I don’t really care. However:
Tourism is the most prominent industry in the Canaries, which are one of the major tourist destinations in the world. Tenerife is the most visited island in the archipelago[8] and one of the most important tourist destinations in Spain.[9]
If they really want to trash their economy and have nothing to live on, then fine, their choice. As a general rule, biting the hand that feeds you doesn’t usually end well.
Been there twice and liked the place as a holiday. But if they are unhappy with the volume of tourists just put the taxes/prices up to reduce numbers but still receive income.
Unless, of course, it is just a few shouty types trying to start a bandwagon for their own personal reasons.
I can appreciate some of their problems as I live in Port Chalmers which is on the Cruise ship rota.We can get up to 7000 people arrive when two ships are docked. Fortunately most of them board buses for tours or to go into Dunedin where they are absorbed into the city centre crowds, but there are still many wandering our streets.I will stop and talk to them and have met people from all over the world. However they are all mature or elderly adults who are ashore for only a few hours and we are spared the drunken young Brits spewing everywhere.
There was something last year about Lanzarote wanting to improve the quality of their tourists, and it was mainly about the British ones.
I went there over Christmas and expected to see loads of young British lads spewing up everywhere, but there were none.
What I did see was every bar packed with older Britsh men with their shirts off, showing their sweaty bodies and biggest range of disgusting beer guts I have ever seen.
Really, I’ve never seen beer guts and man breasts as big as the average ones over there.
If that’s what they were refering to, I kind of see their point
Oy! I resemble that remark.
Lanzarote is the location of one of the world’s toughest ironman courses. I suspect that when that is happening the visitors will be a bit leaner.
If the locals get their way, and the Brits stay away (Turkey is cheaper, and warmer), they should all start learning Russian, and having signs made in Cyrillic (or Acryllic, as my late wife used to say). After a season or two, they’ll be screaming for the Brits to come back. I can’t think of one tourist destination which has been made better by having Russian visitors.
Bucko, you were probably in Playa del Carmen, or Playa Blanca. As a long term visitor to Costa Teguise, I can say it’s more quiet and refined.
Correct. Playa del Carmen
Who exactly do they expect to come flocking and why?
They’ve got two basic choices as far as I can see:
– Ban tourists from Britain, or restrict the numbers by some non-financial means
– Increase prices to get a better “class” of tourist.
Given that tourism is the mainstay of the economy best of luck!
Wages that low are indicative of few other sources of potential income.
Not particularly interested in anywhere hot myself, but if I saw things like that scrawled on walls, I’d be more than happy to grant the wish.