Spanish locals have been warned their protests and demonstrations across the European Union holiday hotspot are backfiring. Hotel stays in the Canary Islands saw a significant rise of 5.7% in August compared to the same month last year.
It totalled 6,903,674 overnight stays and marked the twelfth consecutive month of growth, according to data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The figure represents the third-highest number of overnight stays for the month of August in the region’s recorded history.
It comes after the Canary Islands including Tenerife and Lanzarote have faced protests and demonstrations over mass tourism. Among the protesters’ demands was the immediate end to the construction of any more hotel accommodations.
In April, up to 120,000 people took to the streets of Tenerife to demand limits on the impact holidaymakers were having on the Spanish archipelago. Demonstrations were seen across the holiday destinations in June, July, August and September.
The number of tourists staying in Canary Island hotels also grew by 3.21 per cent, with a total of 1,005,065 visitors in August. Of these, 703,149 (69.96 per cent) were international tourists. The average daily rate per hotel room in the Canary Islands has risen to €139.29 (£116), an 8.2 per cent year-on-year increase.
Overall, hotel prices in the region increased by 5.93 per cent compared to the previous year. Hotel occupancy reached 81.19 perc ent in August, with the sector employing 57,818 people, representing a 7.3 per cent increase from the previous year.
In terms of occupancy rates, the Canary Islands ranked second in Spain at 81.19 per cent, behind the Balearic Islands at 89.9 per cent and ahead of Catalonia at 80.15 per cent. During the demos, locals carried banners reading slogans such as “Tourism is killing the Canary Islands”.
They said the influx of outsiders had made their home unsafe and was erasing their local culture.