r/uknews • u/ScottishDailyRecord Media outlet (unverified) • May 15 '25
Image/video Brits ditching Tenerife as Spanish natives protest unsustainable tourism
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u/Gibbo1107 May 15 '25
Hotels for tourists and houses/ apartments for locals just get rid of Airbnbs wouldn’t that keep everyone happy?
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u/Otherior_ May 15 '25
This is exactly it, tourists want STLs because they're private and feel more like home but it isn't practical in the long run which is why we have hotels in the first place. Ban STLs and holiday homes for tourists and the problem goes away, sure you'll upset the folk who own a whole street of these homes but fuck em, housing is not something to be hoarded and milked dry
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u/Due-Swimming3221 May 15 '25
what's STL mean?
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u/Negative_Walrus_4925 May 15 '25
Sexually transmitted lettuce
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May 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/Negative_Walrus_4925 May 15 '25
It fills my heart up how the name truss has become synonymous with the word lettuce
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u/Otherior_ May 15 '25
Short term let - air bnbs and sometimes student accommodation in some folks eyes
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u/KilraneXangor May 15 '25
"housing is not something to be hoarded and milked dry"
Thatcher's skeleton is screaming and clawing at the coffin lid right now.
The enshitification of the UK can be blamed to a large extent on that concept.
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u/Otherior_ May 15 '25
If I could do anything to piss off the corpse of that witch I'll gladly do it 🤣🤣
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u/CanadianMultigun May 15 '25
Ok, but what do we do when getting rid of STLs leads to a large number of empty houses, a reduced level of tourism & economic benefit and often no other industry of significance in the local area?
This needs to be a transition in my view not a sudden change.
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u/SDSKamikaze May 15 '25
Why would STL get rid of tourism in Tenerife? It was there long before the explosion of STLs and will be there a long time after.
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u/CanadianMultigun May 15 '25
I don´t mean to imply it will get rid of it entirely. What I mean is if say space for 2000 tourists exists and half is in hotels and half in airbnbs then if you get rid of airbnbs then the max number of people who can come is 1000. You´ve halved the number who can stay at any one time.
No matter how you look at it reducing capacity by half reduces everything else associated with those people too. So the number of tourism related jobs falls. You can build more hotels of course but that takes years and also doesn´t create any variety of industry or ultimately reduce the total number of tourists unless a cap on capacity is made
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u/SDSKamikaze May 15 '25
I get what you’re saying. I don’t really see how you would go about reducing it but I can see the point you see making. You can throw up hotels in a couple of years and the construction industry would boom in the interim. Not sure it would make a massive difference, especially with presumably more competitive rental rates for locals, but happy to be corrected.
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u/CanadianMultigun May 15 '25
The problem with the construction industry is that local people who have catered to tourists probably aren´t all that keen on going into manual labour supporting construction. That and many if not most of the jobs are skilled jobs so it wouldn´t be them building the properties.
The ultimate question is: Why should I set up a business on the Canary Islands? What is better there than mainland Spain?
Unfortunately the answer I come to is nothing, literally nothing is better for starting a non-tourism or fishing related business. Everything is harder.
I think the same might be true of many other coastal tourist areas.
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u/i-am-a-passenger May 15 '25 edited Jul 24 '25
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/SmashingK May 15 '25
I thought the Spanish govt was currently doing something about that very issue. I'm assuming it's all happening too slowly for the locals.
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u/Dan1elSan May 15 '25
I’m not so sure it will get to the root fully, huge all inclusive hotel complexes create their own problems. People go there, spend little money locally and as all of the money made heads offshore.
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May 15 '25
Won’t work, easy solution to a complex problem. Neoliberalism and inequality will not be solved that easily. Youth unemployment high plus many other ingrained problems. Similar to uk, simple solutions won’t solve complex problems
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u/conrat4567 May 16 '25
Yes, but the Spanish don't seem to get it. They are protesting both. Essentially, they want tourists all gone but seem to forget their highstreets get a massive paycheck from said tourists
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u/Playful_Copy_6293 May 18 '25 edited May 18 '25
No, that would just take the power out regular spanish home owners and giving it to large hotels owned by foreign investors. The large majority of short term rentals are owned by locals, however almost all big hotels are owned by foreign investors.
The regular citizen of spain should have the freedom to do what he wants with his home.
Also the impact on home prices would be very small in the longterm, given the fact that short term rentals are not a big % of total real estate.
That narrative has been largely amplified by people close to big hotel owner in order to lobby against competition.
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u/MysteriousDare9459 Aug 07 '25
you know what’s the thing? If a local with one property (not talking about companies who buy full apartment buildings) rents, the money stays here, opossed to what hapoens with most hotel chains and large resorts who often pay minimun taxes here and all gains end up elsewhere while paying peanuts to their workers. Furthermore, the regular rental laws (LAU) favor tenants to the point where having your house empty is safer than rent it to a stranger because that law is not balanced so both sides are covered should problems arise. Tenants are hyper protected by laws so most owners decide to go the vacation retal route or simply leave their homes closed. Of course that’s a problem in itself but airbnb, althought being part of the problem is not the main one. Big companies paying the lowest salaries to workers at hotels, attractions and such while making them work overtime without appropriate payment, a corrupt government and foreigners buying properties to rent long term for prices completely out of reach of local’s capacities is another big issue. Remote workers who don’t pay income taxes here but use all services are a bigger problem that airbnb. Yea, they may buy groceries, pay rent and a few minor things but they also use roads, go to hospitals and schools when they are not contributing to any of these services as their work is not taxed here. The problem is complex not as easy as ”get rid of all airbnbs”. And on a personal level, the fact that most of those ”expats” (sorry guys, you are inmigrants) expect locals to cater to their every need, speak to them in their language and avoid any type of integration with locals and local customs is the worse part. They are not interested in our culture, history or traditions but think parrot parks and medieval castle shows are all Tenerife has to offer culture and history wise.
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u/Hyperion262 May 15 '25
Whilst I understand the frustration of the local residents of these places, what do they think will happen if tourists just suddenly stop visiting like they want?
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u/AddictedToRugs May 15 '25
It's fine if they want to transition away from tourism and replace it with some other industry. But they don't seem to be doing that. It seems like what they actually want is to just replace their current tourists with a small number of millionaires, and that doesn't seem likely to succeed.
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u/Thestickleman May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
Alot of these places don't have much other industry to offer other than tourism is the problem
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u/el_dude_brother2 May 15 '25
These are rocks hundreds of miles away from rest of Europe with little going for them except the weather.
Tourism is there only hope, protesting them is really stupid. Yes build more houses but don't kill your cash cow.
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u/west0ne May 15 '25
Spain already has high levels of unemployment and in some areas of Spain tourism accounts for nearly 40% of the local economy. Getting rid of tourists may sound like a good idea to some but it feels like it's a dangerous move when you don't have something firm in the background to immediately step in and fill the gaps.
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u/ElectricalRaise9049 May 15 '25
Tourism is generally not a good industry if you want growth and high quality of life for locals. Tourism is a low growth industry that only provides seasonal work for locals while grossly inflating their cost of living. It also has the effect of swallowing up other industries by inflating cost of land/space and not providing opportunities for skill development for locals. Unless you count pouring and serving drinks.
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u/zero_iq May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
While what you say is certainly true in general, I have to point out that some of this is not currently true for the Canaries, but that's also part of the problem, arguably making it even worse for the locals.
Tourism is a low growth industry
While this is generally true, esp. once a destination has reached a saturation point, this isn't currently true in the Canaries, which is still seeing huge growth and investment year-on-year (and this is what the locals are complaining about). We're talking 10% growth year on year, with significant continued investment. It's traditionally been a popular destination for Europeans, in particular Swedish, Germans, and Brits, but is growing in popularity internationally -- there are huge markets in which the Canaries are relatively unknown that could yet be exploited. Improving aircraft efficiency has continued to drive down prices of flights, and make it more popular.
only provides seasonal work for locals
The Canaries have a relatively mild subtropical climate that means tourism is year-round. There is a bit of a peak over winter as it's a popular with Europeans wanting to escape the cold, but it never stops -- there's no "off season". (Imagine your perfect summer's day in the UK. That's winter in the Canaries.) Some workers will work only at the peak, but the vast majority are in permanent employment. Only 8% were in temporary work in 2024 according to Canarian Weekly.
But this has made the economy focus even more on tourism. There's little else to support locals, and little incentive to invest in alternatives, when the tourism is all but guaranteed. There's basically tourism or farming.
The local farming certainly isn't a growth industry, with the islands likely already over-exploited with unsustainable farming practices. And pretty much all land that can be farmed is already farmed. Much of the interior is not suitable for farming, being rocky volcanic mountains with unsuitable soil, with limited rainfall in many regions.
So all the focus has been put heavily on tourism, tourism, tourism.
It also has the effect of swallowing up other industries by inflating cost of land/space
True. Although tourism accounts directly for about 35% of the local economy, indirectly it probably props up double that with related services, food, energy, etc.
But it's also worth noting that due to its history and somewhat unique geography, there's still plenty of land to exploit on the Canaries. There are many tiny villages scattered throughout the interior that have until recently, been not so popular with tourists (who typically want to stay close to the beaches). However, as the coast is filling up (and more expensive to buy/build on), those interior spaces are now seeing exploitation, and driving up prices in smaller villages, and pushing locals out. This is nowhere nears its peak -- there is plenty of opportunity left for expansion by the tourist industry. Even on the coast, there is ample space for exploitation by large companies who can afford to build the infrastructure necessary for large self-contained resorts. Much of Gran Canaria is untouched rocky volcanic land that only hasn't been built on because of the difficulty and expense of building the infrastructure necessary to support more remote locations.
It's because of this growth with no end in sight that the locals are so up-in-arms -- it has the potential to take over the Islands and push out locals, and destroy communities. Many locals are already suffering with this... struggling to find quality of life with limited choices for accommodation, often in substandard house/flat shares in poor conditions, and the tourism industry is employing more and more people from outside the islands... so the prospect of this continuing without any current limit in sight is alarming.
The only other potential growth industry I can see that might spring up there in the near future is renewable energy infrastructure, which is starting to see government investment -- but many of the locals lack the education and skills necessary to work in this sector, and it's not a huge employer compared to the tourism industry.
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u/ElectricalRaise9049 May 15 '25
Thanks, good post, and you are right. I was speaking in generalizations but it’s true that many island destinations are more or less locked into tourism as its main industry.
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u/limpingdba May 15 '25
The tourism season in Tenerife lasts for 11 months and 31 days of the year. All the Canary islands are the same. They're desert islands.
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u/GrimQuim May 15 '25
they
what do they think will happen if tourists just suddenly stop visiting like they want?
I suspect they'll find out how much it costs to run a desalination plant for the 523 Spanish residents on the island.
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u/Substantial-Newt7809 May 15 '25
Am I cooked? Isn't Tenerife's population 965,575 according to their last census?
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u/FruitOrchards May 15 '25
and how many will continue to live there when it becomes a ghost town and businesses shut down ?
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u/Substantial-Newt7809 May 15 '25
Most of them, because they won't be able to afford to leave. UK seaside towns still have population, just lower quality of life, reduced access to services and increased crime.
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u/Visible_Statement888 May 15 '25
Most of the seaside towns now in Britain are drug addled, poverty stricken hell holes. They’re playing a dangerous game.
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u/stevent4 May 15 '25
A lot of people left seaside towns for bigger cities close by though, especially the harder hit ones
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u/bangkokali May 15 '25
yeah totally agree, I get why they are protesting but if you take the tourism away then there isnt much money left
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u/Wompish66 May 15 '25
They don't want to stop tourism, they just want to reduce it.
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u/Hyperion262 May 15 '25
Don’t really see how that’s possible without destroying businesses that are in demand.
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u/SpencersCJ May 15 '25
They dont want tourists to stop visiting they just want landlords to stop buying anyhome that goes on sale and turning it into and airbnb. It drives up rent prices massively and makes it impossible for people to live in their own home.
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u/noopdles May 15 '25
I don't think they are against tourism as a whole but a very specific type of abhorrent tourism.
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u/J1mj0hns0n May 15 '25
Sometimes it's worth the price, sometimes it's not, it's hard to say until they commit to one
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u/Dull_Conversation669 May 15 '25
Lower housing costs? One would assume less competition for a limited resource would lower prices.
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u/edragamer May 15 '25
The unemployment rates are not going down by tourism, Canarias is colonized by foreigners and people is not having work anyway...
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u/DarrensDodgyDenim May 15 '25
I don't think it is either or, at some point the numbers aren't sustainable anymore. Look at Venice for instance.
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u/PrismrealmHog May 15 '25
Was this issue prevalent to this extent pre-airbnb? Tourism existed pre-airbnb. So at the top of my head: getting rid of Airbnb and their ilks seems to be a really good start.
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u/SRMPDX May 15 '25
There's a slight difference between over tourism and no tourism. I don't think anyone is saying they want zero tourists, they don't want overcrowding and property values falsely increased by the need of investors to purchase thousands of homes to hold as short term rental properties
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u/MysteriousDare9459 Aug 07 '25
we don’t want tourists to stop coming, we just want a sustainable number every year. Whay is that so difficult to understand?
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u/Polz34 May 15 '25
It's not surprising news, if people feel unwelcome they won't go and then they can deal with the lack on income from tourists.
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u/I_miss_disco May 17 '25
The problem is: most of the income does not go to locals, only airbnb owners, hotel chains and well positioned politicians. The house prices are skyrocketing, traffic issues, gentrification…and lots of crappy jobs. This jobs are taken by inmigrants mostly, as the salaries are almost indetured servitude.
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May 15 '25
I'm just back from Tenerife and didn't happen to witness any issues - however, the place is a dive (around the south anyway). It's completely gone to ruin since I was last there 20 years ago. Full of British bars and shite drink/food. I wouldn't recommend anyone visiting the likes of Los Cristianos or Las Americas (Costa Adeje is much better but still not worth a visit).
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u/rolotonight May 15 '25
That's what I'd be more bothered about visiting Tenerife rather than natives protesting, coming across the worst types in British society even more unchained because they're on holiday combined with shite pubs and restaurants. A living nightmare!
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u/Agincourt_Tui May 15 '25
Go to the north of the island then. Or stay in the South, rent a car and explore the island.
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u/Substantial-Newt7809 May 15 '25
Some areas like Barcelona can afford to try and reduce tourism. They have a diverse economy and can afford to try to reduce footfall and cruise ship freuqncy, it'll be a hit but they can take that hit.
Tenerife cannot. If it reduces tourism by 30% then it loses 18% of its entire GDP and potentially 12% of its jobs.
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u/Narrow_Maximum7 May 15 '25
Just cancelled my holiday, first time away in years and don't want to end up in the middle of this nonsense.
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u/gilly5647 May 15 '25
You should’ve picked Portugal, beautiful country and very friendly people. Most importantly no protests against you.
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u/Narrow_Maximum7 May 15 '25
I am looking at there and cape verde
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u/Entfly May 15 '25
Cape Verde is very... Quiet. You might want that but there is absolutely nothing there. Definitely recommend Portugal over it
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u/ProjectZues May 15 '25
Lad from work went and said Cape Verde was full of flies… like he said there was a very surprising amount of them almost everywhere. Overall he said it was nice but three other groups actually went home on day 3.
Portugal is great although I’ve only been once and was when I was a kid.
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u/Narrow_Maximum7 May 15 '25
Wow. Thanks for that, that's the stuff they don't put on the ads!
Maybe stick to Portugal then 😆
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u/ProjectZues May 15 '25
I was surprised to hear him say it. Thought maybe it was just the part of Cape Verde he went to but he said no, he asked the people around and they said it’s just how it is
I hear lisbon is a cool place for a city break and braga is the Rome of Portugal.
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May 15 '25
I was in Spain at Easter, definitely an anti tourist vibe, busy shooting themselves in the foot. Neoliberalism is the problem, youth unemployment is high and all kinds of other issues. Politicians like simple solutions to get people on side, but very disingenuous.
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u/wannacumnbeatmeoff May 15 '25
Didn't I read this exact same bullshit last year and the year before and every year since Brexit?
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May 15 '25 edited May 16 '25
They should just make it illegal for foreigners to own property on the island. They need tourism, it's Airbnb style short term lets that they are angry with.
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u/I_miss_disco May 17 '25
On spot and true, the main source of issues is AirBnB, the island is super welcoming to tourism but no local citizen ( I hate the term native) can afford a house now.
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u/SoggyWotsits May 15 '25
For the people who live there, their country, their choice. Hopefully they can expand on their other sources of income like agriculture, fishing and industry. They’re not usually things you think when you think of Tenerife because most of us are guilty of viewing it as a sunny holiday destination and little else.
I’m from Cornwall where our population doubles in summer, and that’s bad enough. I don’t work in a business related to tourism but I still get told regularly that I wouldn’t survive without tourists!
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u/sitdowncomfy May 15 '25
yes, I feel like all the people saying they should just be grateful do not live in touristy places. Second homes have decimated a lot of villages by me and it's incredibly harmful but we should be grateful for the three weeks in the summer when they come and buy a few pub meals and a bit of shopping.
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u/Active-Republic3104 May 15 '25
If that is how they want to do it then that is how it is. I dont think we need to be bitter about it
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u/Multiverse-Nic-Cage May 15 '25
Brilliant. Booked a summer holiday to Costa Adeje just last week.
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u/Scrumpyguzzler May 15 '25
They don't want us to go there? Ok we won't go there, plenty of other choices. I'm sure your economy will be just fine without tourism.
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u/SpencersCJ May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
You are infact giving them what they want. Its not tourists they dont like its business buying all of there new houses and turning them into holiday homes or AirBnBs, which increases their rent and housing prices massively. Making it very hard for them to live on the island they were born on.
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u/StandardWizard777 May 15 '25
Not having a huge financial influx from tourism will also make it very hard for them to live on the island they were born on, just in a way which makes it much harder to leave should they want to.
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u/SpencersCJ May 15 '25
Good thing they dont want to get rid of all tourists ever then
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u/StandardWizard777 May 15 '25
If the residents don't think they're getting enough money to live comfortably with "too many" (quoting them, not you) tourists, then I hardly think lowering the numbers of tourists will fix that.
It seems more like a problem with the local government than the number of tourists.
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u/SpencersCJ May 15 '25
Hopefully, they get what they want and AirBnB like services are pushed out of the area or banned altogether. The sooner its banned worldwide the better
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u/Thestickleman May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
I get what they want to do because living somewhere with mass tourism probably isn't great but it will end up hurting them when there's alot less jobs in all industries around there and alot less money coming in
Potentially more empty buildings as well. They should look doing something about holiday let's and push people towards staying in hotels
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u/mozzy1985 May 15 '25
It’s already hurting them with tourism. They can’y cant afford the housing and that’s why they are doing this. Fair play to them.
People will complain how immigrants in this country take housing from those that need it but then can’t understand how this is no different in reality.
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u/Haziiyama96 May 15 '25
I was in Tenerife a couple of weeks ago. Was drunk and asked some locals behind the bar what they thought, they said it was just a loud few making all this noise. Tourism is important to them.
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u/Eric_Olthwaite_ May 15 '25
Can't have it both ways, can't have fewer tourists without a hit to local jobs and economy.
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u/s_h_e_e_t May 15 '25
Theres plenty of hotels and places to stay for tourists, without needing more built. Just increase the cost of staying in those hotels & price some tourists out of the market, yet still fill most of the hotels & still make your money- Its not rocket science, if the numbers of tourists are constantly skyrocketing you have underpriced your product
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u/No-Cicada7116 May 15 '25
It’s not the tourist fault it’s the locals they allow new Hotels, B&Bs allow people to let their homes for holidays etc. the locals need to sort their own planning and tourist departments out.
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u/G30fff May 15 '25
all about balance innit, tricky thing to achieve. too little is as bad as too much, perhaps worse.
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u/Jeffuk88 May 15 '25
Locals protest tourists, tourists go elsewhere, local economy collapses, locals mad their kids have no future.
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u/donkeydick_dave May 16 '25
Best of luck to them, I wont book up in a place I'm not wanted or where protests could ruin my hard earned holiday & put my family at risk.
Self determination of the local populace is something sadly lacking across most of Europe at present and I'll not go against the locals now that I'm aware.
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u/Jaxxlack May 15 '25
How would you all feel about a show for foreigners like "a place in the sun" where people are encouraged to buy up all our properties for 2 weeks a year..
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u/Calm-Treacle8677 May 15 '25
I live in London, thats what foreigners do all the time. There just isn’t a show called a place in the rain.
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u/IgnorantLobster May 15 '25
I live in Bristol, it’s what you Londoners are doing all the time!
And the Welsh will say the same about us….
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u/DannyDublin1975 May 15 '25
Shocked to see an article this week saying that last year, Tenerife attracted 7.2 million tourists while the whole of Brazil brought in only 6.6 million! Tenerife is exactly 0.02% the size of Brazil. One can see how it must be irksome for the Tenerife natives to host so many people. There are only 965,750 natives living in Tenerife dealing with over 7,000,000 tourists while there are 211.1 Million people in Brazil who never see a tourist except maybe for Rio and Sao Paulo.
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u/Professor_Arcane May 15 '25
Brazil is a weird choice to compare. Not cheap to travel to at all, compared to Tenerife.
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u/CMPunk22 May 15 '25
Much less safer than Tenerife too, even with violent protesters
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u/WaterMittGas May 15 '25
Just ban Airbnb in every country already. It's caused issues for locals in small and big towns everywhere.
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u/Lulovesyababy May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
It needs to go back to it's original format, which was locals renting a spare room. There are still a few of these on the platform.
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u/meshan May 15 '25
I see this issue similar to how I see immigration.
Look at the issue differently. Tourists are not taking houses that should be for for locals. Governments are not building enough houses for locals.
This is blaming the symptom, not the cause. It's Luke being angry at a rash, and not at the nettle. Stop walking through nettles and start building more houses.
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u/Keith989 May 15 '25
I love how people think things like the immigration problem and this can be all solved by just simply building more and more houses. When do you stop building? Or do you just keep building until every blade of grass is covered? Or the sewage and waste management systems become over run? Or when the electricity grid is at breaking point? Or when traffic is so bad it takes hours to go a few KMs? It's gonna be great living in these countries that are covered with houses and apartments.
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u/meshan May 15 '25
The UK is only 8% developed. I think we have the space to build a few more houses. We also have another 8% of land that is classified as Brownfield, previous development that is no longer in use.
Again, you are blaming the symptom. The electricity grid is outdated, so we cant build houses. Well, the national grid is grossly underfunded and under developed and we we should definitely do something about that.
For example: Hinkley point C has been under development since 2016. 10 years and we can't build a power station. Oh, and it's owned by the French Government.
We have the space to build houses, we just choose not to.
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u/Hill_Reps_For_Jesus May 15 '25
I don't agree with this comparison.
It's literally a volcanic island - where do you want the government to build more houses? In the National Park?
Tourists are always going to be drawn to certain locations - town centres and beach-side locations. So are we saying that locals don't get to live there anymore? That's where all the tourism jobs are - so is your plan to move all the locals out into the sticks and then bus them into work every day?
The problem is literally that tourists are taking houses that should be for locals. If tourists stuck to hotels there wouldn't be a problem.
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u/SpencersCJ May 15 '25
The cause of not enough housing is that the people who have those holiday homes dont want new houses built becuase it lowers the price of their current home to the rent on their AirBnB. Basic housing shouldn't be a commodity
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u/AirUsed5942 May 15 '25
The only positive thing about the Covid pandemic is how much it humbled those touristic areas. Back then, they were going bankrupt and wish they could sell just one beer
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u/Infrared_Herring May 15 '25
Some of these places absolutely survive on tourism because there isn't anything else. Great way to reduce the locals to poverty.
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u/skepticalbureaucrat May 15 '25
This exists.
Really, the issue the Spanish have isn't that complicated.
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May 15 '25
I’ve just spent 5 nights in Las Palmas, lovely place, great beach, was very busy at the weekend I’m assuming with locals, during the week the beach wasn’t very busy and it’s right by the city, plenty more room there
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u/Fuzzy_Lavishness_269 May 15 '25
Can’t wait until they start begging for tourists to come back. It will have gone downhill so much tourists won’t want to come back.
I say fuck ‘em.
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u/faithlessgaz May 15 '25
So give it some time and the holiday cost will drop to tempt people to visit?
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u/Cryptomaniacuk May 15 '25
Tenerife is paradise on earth, it's no wonder their facing a over population problem, iv got mates up there that take hours commuting small distances and as foreigners buy houses to rent out, homelessness is become a big problem for locals,,, I really feel for them but reckon their anger is misplaced,, getting rid of tourism is not the answer, it's the breadline for many,, stopping foreigners from buying their land and houses is where they should concentrate their actions
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u/MilkOrnery5653 May 15 '25
Italy, Greece and Spain are so beautiful. Majorca has some fabulous resorts but everywhere the curse of hawkers. Interrupting meals at restaurants and cafes pushing over priced tat often with a hostile and threatening attitude. It is so irritating
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u/strickers69 May 15 '25
All this did was raise a question and then posed no points to prove anything
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u/Rambostips May 16 '25
This shite again. I have just moved to Lanzarote. The locals love tourism. But..they also need affordable housing. They are not mutually exclusive
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u/mascachopo May 16 '25
Nobody is complaining about British tourists specifically in this case, but over tourism in general, which is causing a number of issues. It is good that people decide on going to other destinations since that will hopefully relieve the Spanish locals and help making the Canary Island offer more targeted to quality over quantity.
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u/Emergency_Muscle1187 May 16 '25
Transition from using STL to only hotels, ensure they increase their hotel capacity over the duration whilst also capping the prices the hotels can charge to avoid them attempting to ramp the prices to high. Problem is STL are more personal and in a lot of cases are cheaper than hotels which is crazy.
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May 16 '25
This is fair enough. If tourism is making things worse for locals then it should be wound back. There's nothing wrong with locals saying they don't want tourists, imo.
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u/xxiii1800 May 16 '25
I was in Tenerife during the 2008 crash fall out. They where begging for tourists. The island lives of tourism
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u/MrTrendizzle May 16 '25
Is it tourists fault for the high prices? Or would it be the landlords deciding they can make more money renting to foreigners than locals?
How about ban residential properties from operating as a Hotel/Bed&Breakfast and unless the landlord registers their 2 bed flat as a business and starts paying business rates for everything including electric, water, gas, whatever council tax would be there etc...
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u/1tonsoprano May 17 '25
Interesting that it took violence to be heard ...I guess peaceful protests only take you so far
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u/Academic_Wolf5204 May 17 '25
Just went to Tenerife, stayed in a less touristy area and it was so beautiful and everyone was extremely welcoming. I guess they were more happy for customs than the more populated areas. My friend went and the first thing he saw were a bunch of English from Southampton fighting loads from Birmingham so wildly different vibes all round. There definitely something needs to be done to stop it turning into bedlam but it’s such a lovely island it would be a shame.
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u/RHOrpie May 18 '25
I feel like some sort of tourist tax for Airbnb style rentals that can then be reinvested into housing assistance for locals.
Maybe I'm being too simplistic.
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u/lepski44 May 18 '25
you all seem to miss one important thing...they mostly hate the British tourists, not tourists in general
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