Tenerife official tells Brits looking for all-inclusive sunshine breaks to go ... trends now
A leading Tenerife politician has told Brits looking for cheap all-inclusive sunshine breaks to go elsewhere for their holidays as the island looks for 'greater quality' tourists who will appreciate 'our famous Canary Island potatoes'.
Carlos Tarife, deputy mayor for the island capital Santa Cruz, said holidaymakers interested in staying in their hotels with their mandatory wristbands on should book places like the Dominican Republic instead.
He made his extraordinary comments just four days after thousands of Canary Islanders took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism and demand their politicians take action.
Government officials in Tenerife, where protestors held up banners that said: 'You enjoy we suffer' and 'Tourism moratorium now', said around 30,000 people had taken part but organisers put the figure at 80,000.
In an interview on a Tenerife radio station yesterday, Mr Tarife who is also Head of Public Services and the Environment for Santa Cruz Council, said when explaining why he was against a tourist moratorium: 'In the Canary Islands we have less hotel beds today than five or six years ago.
Carlos Tarife, deputy mayor for the island capital Santa Cruz (centre) urged holidaymaking Brits to look at places such as the Dominican Republic for sunny breaks instead of Tenerife
A woman raised her fist as she pounded the streets in protest against the levels of tourism in the holiday-isles
'That's go to do amongst other things with the fact that in the Canaries, and I'm referring especially to Tenerife and southern Tenerife in particular, a model of four-star hotels is changing to one of five-star and five-star plus hotels.
'Where there were hotels with 250 beds, there's now hotels with less beds but greater quality.
'I think that is the type of tourism we need here, not the type of tourism with all-inclusive wristbands where holidaymakers stay inside the hotel and do everything in the hotel.
'For that I think there are destinations like the Dominican Republic and other places.'
He went on to tell Radio Marca Tenerife: 'I think we have to have five-star hotels and five-star plus hotels where tourists don't just come to enjoy the facilities there but where they come to enjoy our local products such as the famous Canarian potatoes, that's what should interest us.'
Mr Tarife caused controversy last year after being pictured with a latex penis during a visit to a sex shop in a Tenerife shopping centre ahead of municipal and regional elections.
The right-wing politician responded to critics of the photo showing him posing with the giant phallus and two shop assistants holding up his election leaflets by telling them to 'be happier' and saying: 'I bring out affection in people who naturally freely publish a photo on their social media, even if some turn it into a controversy.'
Last week Spanish opera singer Ainhoa Arteta claimed Britain's favourite holiday destination attracts too many 'flip-flop'-wearing tourists.
The four-times-married soprano said the Spanish government should be doing more to attract holidaymakers seeking a cultural experience.
The Basque-born 59-year-old, who first performed in London in 1999 with Placido Domingo, voiced her concern in an interview ahead of the Canary Island protests last Saturday, which were backed by campaigners who organised smaller support events in cities including London, Berlin and Malaga.
