Tenerife locals say they 'are living in CAVES' and life on the island is ... trends now
Activists and environmentalists in the Canary Islands have warned that locals are being forced to live in their cars - and even caves - due to the impact of major tourism operators who are 'consuming the island'.
The shocking declaration is the latest in a string of increasingly alarming statements from the groups ahead of mass anti-tourism protests across the islands of Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and La Palma planned for April 20.
In the meantime, Canarians are resorting to desperate measures to limit the number of tourists frequenting local beauty spots, spraying anti-tourism graffiti and erecting fake 'closed due to overcrowding' signs to ward off holidaymakers.
Ivan Cerdena Molina, an activist working with The Tenerife Friends of Nature Association (ATAN) told Olive Press: 'We have nothing against individual tourists but the industry is growing and growing and using up so many resources and the island cannot cope.
'It's a crisis, we have to change things urgently. People are living in their cars and even in caves, and locals can't eat, drink or live well. Airbnb and Booking.com are like a cancer that is consuming the island bit by bit.
'The benefits of the industry are not trickling down to everyday people, whose salaries have not increased in years, the quality of life here is collapsing.'
This has given rise to groups like 'Canarias se exhausta' (The Canary Islands are exhausted), one of the principal drivers of the Islands-wide protests on April 20.
'It is time to boycott, with the tools at our disposal, the tourist activity that is expelling us from our own land,' members have written on social media.
The shocking declaration is the latest in a string of increasingly alarming statements from the groups ahead of a planned mass anti-tourism protest across the islands of Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and La Palma on April 20
Almost twenty associations have called for a protest on April 20th in Gran Canaria against the overcrowding of the island, on the same day as the one in Tenerife. It is being organised under the same motto 'The Canary Islands have a limit' (Placard reads: Canarias not for sale)
Canarians are resorting to desperate measures to limit the number of tourists frequenting local beauty spots, spraying anti-tourism graffiti
Graffiti has appeared in the Canary Islands telling tourists to 'go home' and accusing holidaymakers of bringing 'misery' to locals
A wave of new anti-tourism graffiti has popped up near resorts in Tenerife over the past few weeks, with messages reading 'tourists go home' and 'too many guiris'
Fake 'closed due to overcrowding' signs have been put up in popular beauty sports on the island as environmentalists say Lanzarote is being ruined by its own success
Campaigners in the Canary Islands say it is becoming impossible for many locals to access affordable housing due to skyrocketing property prices driven by tourism.
Meanwhile, the dramatic influx of holidaymakers has allegedly led to congestion of health services, the collapse of the waste management system, the lack of water for consumption and the agricultural sector, overcrowding of protected spaces, a rise in crime and a loss of biodiversity, among other complaints.
'The current model has completely destroyed the
