Why is the rejection of tourists in the Canary Islands growing?

“Airbnb raises my rent”, «tourist go home“”. “your luxury, my misery”. These are some of the graffiti that can be read on the streets of different towns in the Canary Islands showing the rejection of the worst face of tourismone that represents a negative alteration of the residents’ way of life.

We turn to statistics on tourism in the Canary Islands, as well as the latest studies on sustainability and tourist carrying capacity of the islands to analyze the Canary tourism model. This one faces the major challenge of sustainability: to continue being a pillar of the Canary Islands economy, but without ignoring the residents, the environment or the often precarious working conditions of a large part of the workers in the sector, who are the ones who support this industry.

An exhausted tourism model in the Canary Islands? Data, interpretations and consequences

Gran Canaria – Source: Pixabay

As indicated by the 2023 Tourism Sustainability Report in the Canary Islands Prepared by a research team from the University of La Laguna and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands have experienced accelerated growth in tourist flow between 2022 and 2023. However, it has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels: almost 15 million tourists in 2022 compared to almost 16 million in 2017, the peak of traveler arrivals to the islands.

But the rate of tourist arrivals continues to grow: in February 2024, 14% more travelers arrived than in the same period of 2023, spending 21% more and making 10% more overnight stays: the tourism sector is already the 35% of the GDP of the Canary Islands. For its part, the annual contribution of the tourism sector to employment It has already exceeded pre-pandemic levels: almost 40% in 2022 compared to 39.4% in 2019 and 29.5% in 2010.

These data show the double sided common in tourist destinations: an important contribution to the territorial economy and considerable job creation, but also a high environmental, urban and social impact. It’s a kind of tourismdependency economic and one tourismphobia social that requires, as indicated by the team of experts of the Sustainability reportfocus on various short and medium-term issues that will mark the new Canarian tourism model, among which the following stand out:

Management of wastewater and water supplies
Territory use and landscape protection
Decarbonization and commitments to climate change
Sustainable mobility and traffic jams
Vacation rental expansion
House prices
Quality of tourism employment
Tourist congestion in certain spaces
Accessibility and inclusivity for traditionally excluded social groups
Improvement of the territorial and social distribution of the benefits of tourism
Perception of tourism by the resident population

How do residents interpret the Canary Islands tourism model?

Beach in the Canary Islands - Source: Pixabay — Beach in the Canary Islands – Source: Pixabay

The Canary Islands Sociobarometer for July 2023 published by the UNED of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria contains questions aimed at knowing the perception of the most urgent problems of the islands and their residents. The main problem pointed out by the Canaries in the survey is unemploymentfollowed by the health system, the economic crisis, infrastructure, housing and citizen insecurity.

Only 3.9% of those surveyed cite the tourism sector crisis as one of the main problems of the region. For their part, only 1.2% report personal or home problems linked to the tourism sector: 19th on the list.

Despite these data, in the executive summary of the Sustainability Report, the research team points out that “there are no availability of indicators in the Canary Islands that allow us to know the perceptions of residents regarding tourism. It is necessary a systematic and rigorous measurement of perceptionsto know the perspective of the residents.”

That is to say, it is suggested that neither the surveys we currently have nor the latest rejection reactions to tourism should be generalized until certify a specific position of a large part of the Canary Islands in relation to tourism.

Beach in the Canary Islands - Source: Unsplash — Beach in the Canary Islands – Source: Unsplash

In this sense, there is no doubt that the Canarian tourist model It influences the problems of unemployment, the economic crisis and the problems of infrastructure, housing and citizen insecurity that do concern the Canary Islands. After all, the socioeconomic panorama is not divided into watertight compartments: the job insecurity of tourism workers influences the economic crisis (and vice versa) and the real estate revaluation influences the crisis of access to housing for residents. And all this is linked to the “crisis” of tourism.

However, tourism also has a positive influence on other socioeconomic aspects in the opinion of Canarian residents, as indicated this work from the University of La Laguna on the perception of tourism in Tenerife. Respondents indicated that tourism positively impacts in the neighborhoods, the cultural heritage or the local quality of life, but very negatively in housing and rent.

Tourism has a double face and is sterile on a practical level be categorical in one sense or another, without ignoring. We must not ignore, as both statistics and experts indicate, that the Canarian tourism model needs changes in the short and medium term. They must take care of the more delicate aspects already mentioned: the job insecurity of the sector, the distribution of benefits, environmental alterations and the problem of housing for residents.

Is other tourism possible in the Canary Islands? Social tourism and tourist carrying capacity

Fuerteventura - Source: Depositphotos — Fuerteventura – Source: Depositphotos

Both social tourism and tourist carrying capacity are concepts that will mark the path of tourism in the future, because, of course. Another tourism is possible beyond bitter positions and emotional discourses.

The social sustainability of tourism, as indicated by the International Social Tourism Organization (ISTO) deals with five criteria to contribute to the rationality of the tourism industry:

Resident populations, including respect for local culture and participation in decision-making in the sector
Workers in the tourism sector, ending precariousness
Visitors, who must have access to local culture in addition to being protected
The operational sector of tourism, that is, the private initiative
The public authorities that legislate

For its part, the tourist carrying capacity is being studied by the Tourism Department of the Government of the Canary Islands through studies such as this, adapted to the particular case of the islands. As indicated by the team of editors, this assignment is part of “an important moment for the Canary Islands, which is currently experiencing one of the most interesting debates that affect its future: the management of mass tourism and the path towards sustainability”.

Likewise, the study is justified by “the growing concern of citizens in aspects directly related to the sustainability of tourism in the Canary Islands”, in addition to the need to “carry out a planning sustainable tourism through a holistic view of it.”

Defined as a qualitative and not quantitative concept—“it does not measure capacity. There is no magic number, but manage a state of balance between the tourist system and the natural system (environmental and human)”—the tourist carrying capacity (TCC) determines the requirement of integration of a certain tourist system in the natural one in which it operates: the circularity of its metabolism, its low footprint ecological, low emissions, etc.

Thus, and although it is a confusing term and difficult to apply and justify in urban planning in the opinion of researchers, tourist carrying capacity is a concept that can be fundamental for measure the capacity of the tourism system to integrate in a balanced way into the environmental and social systems in which it operates: “Incorporating the concept of CCT into tourism management requires rethinking tourism in the new framework of sustainable development and ecosystemic thinking.”

Therefore, it is evident that the challenge of tourism in the Canary Islands and other territories closely linked to tourism is huge, but we must stay with the positive: We know that we have a challenge ahead of us and we know the main problems, in addition to envisioning various solutions.

Now the most difficult thing remains, which will undoubtedly take many years: changing the exhausted tourism model based almost exclusively on economic criteria and with hardly any planning to achieve a “holistic” (and planned) model that achieves the desired sustainability by contributing to Improve Life Quality of the canaries.