The Canary Islands, a popular tourist destination located in the Atlantic Ocean, is facing a paradox that is becoming increasingly common in tourist destinations worldwide. On the one hand, tourism contributes more than 35% of the GDP and fuels the entire productive fabric of the third Spanish destination by number of visitors. On the other hand, many citizens, including 40% of the total workers dedicated to the sector, are questioning if there are already too many visitors arriving. This concern grows with each family that has to leave their neighborhood due to rising housing prices, each time they encounter crowded hospital emergencies, or with each new hotel project that threatens the landscape.
In response to this paradox, a historic demonstration was held on the seven islands of the archipelago under the motto “The Canary Islands have a limit.” More than 57,000 people took to the streets to demand measures such as an ecotax, a moratorium on new projects, or greater regulation of home purchases. The protest was not against tourism itself but against the negative impacts of overdevelopment and poor planning. Despite record-breaking tourism figures, challenges such as low salaries, high unemployment rates, inflation and risk of poverty persist in
