UK tourists in Lanzarote and Tenerife 'forced to flee' and ordered to 'go home'

UK tourists in Lanzarote and Tenerife have been ordered to "go home" by locals. UK tourists in the European Union have been "forced to flee" as 'Go Home Tourist!' signs are erected in Spain by the 'Canary Islands Have a Limit' group.

Holidaymakers at Tenerife's Playa de las Americas and Troya beaches were met by demonstrators who chanted "more tourists, more misery." It comes as protests continue to sweep Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, and El Hierro.

Demonstrators are opposing tourism, and are now uniting over 20 factions under the "Canary Islands have a limit" campaign. In the Playa de las Americas in Tenerife, a resort popular with British holidaymakers, protesters appeared on the beach while tourists were sunbathing and chanted: "This beach is ours."

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"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," said Sara Lopez, 32, in Gran Canaria. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Valencia on Saturday to call for more affordable housing, saying tourist flats push up prices.

8,000 protesters took part in the Canaries. One woman was carrying a cardboard poster which said: "Tourists, go f*****g home." Other posters borne by protesters said: "Enjoying a day at your pool? That water could be going on food' as well as "Macrotourism destroys Canary Islands" and "The Canaries have a limit. More trees, less hotels."

Another in Spanish said: "The Canaries Don't Live off Tourism. Tourism lives off the Canaries." There were no reports of any violence but protesters, whose banners included one in English which said 'Go Home Tourist' are said to have been mocked and taunted.

Victor Martin, a spokesman for Canarias Se Agota which translates into English as "Canary Islands on the Brink," said: "The hunger strike is indefinite and will continue until the two macro hotel projects we're fighting against are stopped for ever and the regional agreement agrees in writing to sit down and talk to us about a tourist moratorium."