LATEST ANTI-TOURIST GRAFFITI APPEARS BENEATH TENERIFE'S TEIDE VOLCANO
- The words appeared painted in white on a road leading to the volcano yesterday
Tourists heading for Tenerife's iconic Teide volcano have been met with graffiti telling them the Canary Islands are saturated with holidaymakers after an official told Britons looking for cheap holidays to go elsewhere.
Protestors who took to the streets in the Atlantic archipelago on Saturday did so under the slogan: 'Canarias tiene un limite', which in English translates as 'The Canary Islands have a limit.'
Yesterday morning the same words appeared painted in white on the tarmac of one of the access roads to the 12,188ft Mount Teide, the highest point in Spain and a must-see tourist attraction in Tenerife.
Another message painted on the road said: 'Moratoria turistica' - 'Tourist moratorium' in English.
Carlos Tarife, deputy mayor for the island capital Santa Cruz, said Brits looking for cheap all-inclusive sunshine breaks should go elsewhere for their holidays as the island looks for 'greater quality' tourists who will appreciate 'our famous Canary Island potatoes'.
He said holidaymakers interested in staying in their hotels with their mandatory wristbands on should book places like the Dominican Republic instead.
In an interview on a Tenerife radio station on Tuesday, 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.
'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.'
Following the new anti-tourist graffiti appearing on the island yesterday, Tenerife council's vice-president Lope Afonso described it as vandalism in an angry message on X, formerly Twitter, ahead of a botched-clean up which led to the graffiti being removed although today it was still visible and readable.
He said: 'The Canary Islands might have a limit, but this exceeds it. Grievances and demands cannot be transformed into vandalism or attacks on public property and, especially, on our landscape and our natural spaces.
'Teide National Park is a World Heritage Site and deserves care and respect. Not everything goes.'
He was immediately met with a wave of criticism by locals who accused him of failing to protect Tenerife and its natural wonders from the damage caused by tourist massification.
Tenerife-based environmentalist Adrian Flores responded by saying: 'The National Park is a World Heritage Site and it's affected by graffiti on the road, but not from the massification it suffers, from the amount of hire cars parked daily off the road wherever people want, by tourists straying off paths etc.'
Another, in an apparent direct attack on UK holidaymakers, added of Mr Afonso's message: 'Is this tweet a joke? Let everyone publish things about the attacks on natural spaces your British friends have done.'
Pablo Glez, flagging up a recent newspaper article about a tourist breaching the rules by camping and cooking in the Teide National Park, added: 'This is vandalism and not a s##tty little bit of graffiti on the road, idiot!'
Valen Guanche wrote: 'You have written absolutely nothing about the demands of those of us who have demonstrated in the streets for the defence and sustainability of the Canary Islands, nothing!
'But some fool goes and paints that on the road and you jump like a jack-in-the-box. You have no shame.'
Earlier this week Tenerife Council president Rosa Davila proposed charging tourists to visit protected natural spaces like the Teide.
She is expected to seek backing for a study to approve the charge at a full council meeting tomorrow.
Graffiti in English left on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month included 'My misery your paradise' and 'Average salary in Canary Islands is 1,200 euros.'
In an apparent UK backlash, a response left in English on a wall next to a 'Tourists go home' message said: 'F##k off, we pay your wages.'
Protest platform Canarias Se Agota, which was a lead organiser in Saturday's Canary Islands marches, has insisted it has nothing to do with the graffiti that has appeared in parts of Tenerife over recent weeks - and has accused regional politicians of blaming them of tourism-phobia as part of a 'dirty tricks' campaign.
They have made demands which include the paralysation of two tourists projects, including one which involves the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife's last virgin beaches, a tourist moratorium and more affordable housing.
Speaking after a botched clean-up of the messages painted on the road to Mount Teide, Mr Afonso wrote on X: 'Dialogue and debate, yes. Vandalism to try to impose, no. Let's continue being an example of freedom, co-existence and civility.'
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