The Canary Islands have been inundated by a ‘record-breaking’ variety of guests to this point this 12 months, in response to native authority figures.
It’s a blow to the 1000’s of residents who’ve come out in drive to protest towards overtourism and poor working situations within the hospitality sector.
The archipelago is overwhelmed with holidaymakers in excessive season, which is placing a pressure on native providers, bumping up housing prices and threatening the pure setting.
On Tenerife, authorities have introduced {that a} new eco-tax might be launched subsequent 12 months to guard a well-liked nationwide park.
Canary Islands see ‘record-breaking’ customer numbers in March
The Canary Islands acquired greater than 1.55 million overseas guests in March, up 0.9 per cent on the report set in the identical month final 12 months.
The figures have been launched by the Canary Islands Nationwide Statistics Institute (INE) on Monday, which added that the whole variety of worldwide vacationers for the primary quarter of 2025 was 4.36 million, a rise of two.1 per cent year-on-year.
INE additionally discovered the primary quarter noticed ‘the best spending figures on report’, in response to native information web site Canarian Weekly.
In March alone, overseas guests spent €2.43 billion, up 4.5 per cent in comparison with the identical month in 2024. Whereas this may occasionally mirror growing curiosity within the vacation spot, it is usually a results of inflation, trade analysts say.
Canary Islands overtourism protests fail to curb hovering customer numbers
The vacationer inflow comes regardless of dozens of protests staged final 12 months by Canary Island residents towards mass tourism.
Comparable demonstrations have already taken place this 12 months. Over Easter, round 80,000 hospitality employees in Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro walked out in a dispute with unions over pay.
On 18 Could, the group Canarias Tiene Un Límite (the Canaries have a restrict) has deliberate a protest taking purpose at governments and establishments for ignoring the calls of residents to clamp down on customer numbers.
Tenerife introduces new eco-tax for vacationers
A small step has been taken by authorities on Tenerife to mitigate the hostile results of mass tourism.
The island is introducing an eco-tax in 2026 for non-residents visiting the Teide Nationwide Park.
The UNESCO world heritage web site has seen unsustainable customer numbers in recent times, resulting in environmental harm, together with air pollution and erosion.
Non-public automobile entry to the pure landmark will even be restricted subsequent 12 months, with electrical shuttle buses supplied as a substitute.
The income from the customer tax might be used to fund conservation initiatives, Rosa Davila, President of the Tenerife Cabildo, mentioned on Monday.