A rental car has been photographed with ‘Go Home’ graffiti in Tenerife ahead of protests this Saturday over the effects of mass tourism.
The latest act of “tourismphobia” comes after slogans were plastered on walls and benches in the resort town of Palm Mar in the south of the island last month.
Among the messages left in English were: ‘My misery, your paradise’ and ‘The average salary in the Canary Islands is 1,200 euros’.
Overnight, the island’s press published a photograph of a rental car with the words “Go Home” scrawled on the right side of the vehicle.
Tenerife newspaper El DÃa said the car belonged to the regional car rental company Cicar, which has more than 40 offices in the Canary Islands, and described it as “another act of tourismphobia.”
A rental car is photographed with ‘Go Home’ graffiti in Tenerife ahead of protests this Saturday over the effects of mass tourism
Protests against tourism in the Canary Islands are planned for the weekend
The latest anti-tourist messages come after slogans were plastered on walls and benches in the tourist town of Palm Mar, in the south of the island, last month (pictured).
A Tenerife-based social media user, referring to foreign tourists with the colloquial Spanish word ‘guiris’, responded by stating: ‘Cicar cars always come with comprehensive insurance.
‘I would like to be able to rent a car in Lanzarote with this. At least that way he would tour the island with the message: ‘Go home, you fucking guiris kings.’
Another reprimanded him writing on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Cicar is a Canarian company that puts food on the table of Canarian workers.
These people who say “go home” are a bunch of fools who don’t work and have no intention of working.’
A supporter added: “Whoever did this is an idiot.” You don’t know if the person renting the car is a tourist or not.
‘Car rental companies rent their cars to everyone. Remember that before doing stupid things like this.
The activists behind the April 20 protests, which will take place in Gran Canaria and Lanzarote as well as Tenerife, have quickly distanced themselves from the anti-tourist graffiti.
Last week they accused regional politicians of doing “dirty tricks” by accusing them of tourismphobia.
Half a dozen Canarians began an ‘indefinite’ hunger strike this Friday next to a church in the town of La Laguna, in the north of Tenerife.
They are all members of a platform called Canarias Se Agota, which literally translates into English as “The Canary Islands are exhausted.”
Half a dozen Canarians began an ‘indefinite’ hunger strike this Friday next to a church in the town of La Laguna, in the north of Tenerife. They are all members of a platform called Canarias Se Agota, which literally translates into English as ‘The Canary Islands are exhausted’.
Protesters hold signs that say: “The Canary Islands are exhausted”
Anti-tourism protesters are seen lining the streets.
Anti-tourism protesters hold a sign that reads: “Our bodies, for our land”
The hunger strikers want the authorities to paralyze two tourism projects, one of them related to the construction of a five-star hotel on one of the last virgin beaches in Tenerife called La Tejita.
They also want local and regional politicians to change the tourism model to protect the island from the worst excesses of mass tourism, including sea pollution, traffic jams and a lack of cheap and affordable housing linked to rising property prices. because of Airbnb-style vacations. come on.
VÃctor MartÃn, spokesperson for Canarias Se Agota, who will not stop eating but is leading the protest, said: “The hunger strike is indefinite and will continue until the two macroprojects we are fighting against are stopped forever and the regional agreement is committed to written to sit down and talk to us about a tourism moratorium.
“A tragedy could happen and someone could die if the government doesn’t listen.”
Alfonso Boullon, spokesperson for the organization Salvar La Tejita, aligned with Canarias Se Agota, added just before the hunger strike began: “This hunger strike is designed to promote a change in the social and economic model in the Canary Islands, which It is fundamentally affected by tourism on which the islands’ economy is based.
‘It is not an anti-tourist protest, it is a protest aimed at reformulating the model that has brought us to where we are today.
‘It is a totally unsustainable model, it exhausts resources and the environment.
‘AVERAGE SALARY IN THE CANARY ISLANDS 1,200 EUROS’: The brand ‘average salary’ refers to the low salaries observed on the Island in comparison with the increase in rents, the increase in interest rates and the cost of living due to inflation rates.
‘TOURIST, RESPECT MY LAND’: Islanders are said to be angry at the build-up of tourist traffic
“We want a moratorium on the number of tourist places available so that they do not increase and the paralysis of the Hotel La Tejita and Cuna del Alma tourist complexes as a sign of commitment to a real will for change.”
Hotel La Tejita is a hotel project for more than 800 guests in the south of the island that activists are trying to stop because they say it will be built partly on protected sand dunes and a public coastal domain.
Cuna del Alma, the other project that has angered activists, is an initiative financed by Belgium to build a hotel and 3,600 tourist chalets in El Puertito, in the municipality of Adeje, also in the south of Tenerife.
Protest groups say the project would destroy large areas of habitat for protected and endangered species.