87,000 didn't turn up to the European Union holiday hotspots' unrest, it has emerged.

Lanzarote and Tenerife dealt 'humiliating' blow over anger towards UK tourists

by · Birmingham Live

Tenerife and Lanzarote have been issued a "humiliating" blow after 87,000 people FAILED to turn up to support the anti-tourism and overtourism demonstrations and protests this week. 87,000 didn't turn up to the European Union holiday hotspots' unrest, it has emerged.

Government officials said that around 8,000 demonstrators turned up - 92,000 less than predicted by the organisers. Local officials claimed that 5,000 people protested in Gran Canaria and over 1,500 people in Lanzarote, while 6,500 people turned up in Tenerife.

"We need a change in the tourist model so it leaves richness here, a change so it values what this land has because it is beautiful," Sara Lopez, 32, told Reuters in Gran Canaria on Sunday. The Canary Islands regional government drafted a law which is expected to pass this year to toughen the rules on short lets following complaints from locals priced out of the housing market.

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Newly built properties will be barred from the short-let market and property owners with a permit will have five years to comply with requirements that include granting neighbours the right to object to these permits. The Canary Islands decided to crack down on tourist rents after the number of private renters exploded in recent years.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Valencia to call for more affordable housing, saying tourist flats push up prices. Nara Gonzalez wrote: “We shouldn’t be attacking tourists. I’ve supported the movement for a long time but I definitely don’t support this kind of thing.”

Ivan Cerdena Molina, a member of the local environmental organisation ATAN, said: “We are going to take loudspeakers, we are going to stop in the bars, [hotel] terraces and tell the people what are our problems. We are going to say ‘you are swimming in s***’, you are making our housing prices higher and the industry behind you [is not helping the island].”