Inside Tenerife’s war on ‘downmarket’ tourists as Brits reply: ‘We pay your wages’

7 months ago 4

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DOWNING another strawberry daiquiri under the setting Tenerife sun, Ellie Taylor is incensed by the “tourists go home” graffiti daubed around the island.

Pointing along the teeming seafront at Playa de las Americas, teaching assistant Ellie, 20, tells me: “We’re good for their economy.

Tenerife is facing a wave of demos calling for fewer — and richer — holidaymakers[/caption]

British holidaymakers Kelcey Harris, Ellie Taylor and Olivia Belcher, who say they are good for the economy[/caption]

A guerilla graffiti campaign by locals has seen scrawled slogans targeting tourists[/caption]

“Half the restaurants would not be open if it wasn’t for us.”

Another disgruntled sun-seeker has put it more simply, scrawling beside some of the graffiti: “F*** off.

“We pay your wages!”

There is trouble in this Canary Island paradise.

Transformed from a sleepy back- water to a key sunshine destination by mass British tourism, Tenerife is facing a wave of demos calling for fewer — and richer — holidaymakers.

A guerilla graffiti campaign by locals has seen scrawled slogans including, “your paradise, my misery”.

Blaming tourists for traffic gridlock, unaffordable housing and pollution, locals will hold mass marches in Tenerife, plus neighbouring islands Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and La Palma, next week.

And if their demands are not met, activists here say they will then organise a protest parade through Playa de las Americas — the beating heart of Tenerife’s party scene for Brits.

It will bring holidaymakers who pour millions of pounds into the islands face-to-face with angry locals.

Some fear it could all turn ugly.

British holidaymakers have also been riled over remarks about the “quality” of tourists attracted to Tenerife.

One activist was quoted as saying Brits “just want to drink cheap beer, lay in the sun and eat burgers and chips”.

To many who have grafted hard all year for their fortnight in the sun, that might sound like the ideal break.

Ellie, from Newcastle upon Tyne, says it is how she and friends nail technician Olivia Belcher, 20, also from Newcastle, and Kelsey Harris, 21, a nanny from Gloucester, have spent much of their holiday.

In the balmy evening heat, she added: “We’ve been doing everything they don’t like you doing.

“Drinking and sunbathing mostly.

“That’s what you do on holiday. You come to relax.

“I don’t know what they expect.

“It sounds like they want classier people to come to Tenerife.

“I feel a bit offended.”

Alan Madden said it was the busiest winter he’s seen in his 30 years on the island[/caption]

Hubert and Geraldine Smyth have holidayed in Tenerife twice a year for 16 years[/caption]

Little wonder, then, that a poll of Good Morning Britain viewers revealed 47 per cent would boycott Tenerife.

Strolling along the Los Cristianos beachfront with her two youngsters, fitness trainer Nadine, who would not give her second name, described the graffiti as “very harsh”.

The 39-year-old from Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria, added: “We bring a lot of money into the country.

“I’d like to see them try having no holidaymakers for a year.

“All the businesses would suffer.

“I’m from the Lake District and tourism is absolutely crazy there.

“It’s how we survive, so I’m all for tourism.”

So why do some here in the Canary Islands seem hellbent on throttling their golden goose?

On a roasting-hot afternoon this week, activist Brian Harrison gives me a guided tour around a building site for a new tourist hotel which he says is flouting environmental regulations.

Brian, who left behind rainy Bridgend for Tenerife in 1991, is General Secretary of Salvar La Tejita, one of the organisers of next week’s protest march.

The 57-year-old blamed the anti-tourist graffiti on disaffected local teens, saying demo organisers don’t “condone any form of vandalism or illegal activity”.

There’s no hate towards the tourists. The aversion here is for the model of mass tourism

Danile Duque

The sound engineer added: “That being said, if any of us were 17 years old with no possibility of leaving school for a job or getting a home before you’re 35, we would be angry.”

Brian says houses converted into holiday rentals are squeezing locals out, while roads and other infrastructure are under heavy strain.

Blaming the sheer quantity of holidaymakers, Brian wants Tenerife to introduce tourist taxes to bring numbers down.

“Years ago, the only accommodation here was in hotels,” he explained.

“Now apartments and houses, designed for people to live in, have been converted into holiday rentals on a mass scale.

“To make it worse, a lot of these homes are bought as an investment by companies or individuals who are not residents.

“A lot of the bookings take place in their own countries, so none of the money reaches Tenerife.

“Rising rental and low wages mean locals are priced out of the market.”

One activist even described booking.com and Airbnb this week as being like a “cancer” that is “consuming the island bit by bit”.

According to campaigners, some locals have been forced to live in vans or their cars as the housing crisis deepens.

Adrian Heyhirst, with son Austin, says residents are over-reacting[/caption]

Tenerife-born Danile Duque, from the Salvar La Tejita group, insists the demonstrations are not anti-tourist.

The computer-programmer-turned- environmental-campaigner, 46, said: “We want a cap on the number of tourist beds and a move towards a model based more on quality and not quantity.

“There’s no hate towards the tourists.

“The aversion here is for the model of mass tourism.”

On Thursday evening, around 200 protesters waved banners and chanted slogans against mass tourism at a rally in La Laguna.

Later, six activists began a hunger strike to support the cause.

Taking a stroll by Los Cristianos’s golden sands, Burnley fan and design upholsterer Adrian Heyhirst, 55, holidaying with son Austin, 17, said: “That’s a bit drastic, isn’t it?

“It sounds like a lot of nonsense to me. Sounds like we’ve got a few Greta Thunbergs around.”

Barman and musician Alan Madden serves chilled lager in the Dail Fountain pub for those escaping the 32C afternoon sun.

Originally from Dublin, the 60-year-old revealed: “I’ve been here 31 years and it was the busiest winter I’ve ever seen.

“There’s a certain amount of people here who just don’t want tourists.”

The expat agrees that Tenerife has a housing crisis, adding: “You can’t get anywhere to rent in Los Cristianos long term.

“They’re all holiday lets.

The Canary Islands have some problems, but they’re not due to the tourists

Dimple Melwani

“You need accommodation for the workers and the Canarians can’t afford the prices they’re asking.

“And traffic jams are a massive problem.”

Retired wheat farmer Hubert Smyth, 81, and wife Geraldine, 68, from Portrush, Co Antrim, are at the bar enjoying a refreshment.

They have holidayed in Tenerife every March and November for the last 16 years.

Retired hotel housekeeper Geraldine said: “My friend saw the ‘tourists go home’ signs on Facebook and told me.

“I said, ‘Well, whatever, we’re going to go anyhow’.

“How would this place cope without tourists?

“Well, they wouldn’t. These bars would all close up.”

Britain and Tenerife have a long, entwined history of trade and tourism. Relations haven’t always been cordial.

In 1797, Admiral Horatio Nelson had his right arm blown apart by a cannonball when the Royal Navy tried to take the port of Santa Cruz.

Locals still celebrate their victory by reenacting the battle at the Recreation Gesta every July.

Tenerife’s year-round sunshine and crisp, clean air made it a health-conscious 19th Century destination for well-heeled travellers.

When mass tourism took off in the 1950s, it transformed sedate fishing villages into plush hotel complexes.

A rite of passage holiday for youths, the island has seen generations of Brits return to its resorts year after year.

As well as guaranteed sun, prices are attractive for those without deep pockets.

A full English breakfast will set you back around £3.40, while a pint of chilled lager during happy hour is £1.50.

With Britain shrouded by grey skies and driving rain for much of the year, it’s little wonder the Canaries are proving a bigger draw than ever.

In her air-conditioned Santa Cruz office, Tenerife’s tourism boss Dimple Melwani tells me that British sunseekers “are our main market”.

Last year, 2.5million travelled to Tenerife — 38 per cent of the total visitor count — with 1.9million staying on the island and the rest moving on to other destinations.

Brits poured around £2.6million into island purses, according to the tourism office.

Each holidaymaker spends around £1,215 during their stay — up 27 per cent from 2019.

Chief executive Dimple, 48, assured me: “British people are welcome.

“The Canary Islands have some problems, but they’re not due to the tourists.”

So have the protests deterred party-goers in the heaving bars of Playa de las Americas?

“I’ve rebooked to come back in July,” Ellie says. “It’s even warmer then and I’ll be drinking more daiquiris.”