Tenerife official tells Brits looking for all
A leading Tenerife politician has told Brits looking for cheap all-inclusive sunshine breaks to go elsewhere for their holidays as the island looks for 'greater quality' tourists who will appreciate 'our famous Canary Island potatoes'.
Carlos Tarife, deputy mayor for the island capital Santa Cruz, said holidaymakers interested in staying in their hotels with their mandatory wristbands on should book places like the Dominican Republic instead.
He made his extraordinary comments just four days after thousands of Canary Islanders took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism and demand their politicians take action.
Government officials in Tenerife, where protestors held up banners that said: 'You enjoy we suffer' and 'Tourism moratorium now', said around 30,000 people had taken part but organisers put the figure at 80,000.
In an interview on a Tenerife radio station yesterday, 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.
Carlos Tarife, deputy mayor for the island capital Santa Cruz (centre) urged holidaymaking Brits to look at places such as the Dominican Republic for sunny breaks instead of Tenerife
A woman raised her fist as she pounded the streets in protest against the levels of tourism in the holiday-isles
'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.
READ HERE: Brits are told to 'go home' as anti-tourist graffiti appears in another Spanish holiday hot spot days after furious protests in Tenerife
Advertisement'For that I think there are destinations like the Dominican Republic and other places.'
He went on to tell Radio Marca Tenerife: 'I think we have to have five-star hotels and five-star plus hotels where tourists don't just come to enjoy the facilities there but where they come to enjoy our local products such as the famous Canarian potatoes, that's what should interest us.'
Mr Tarife caused controversy last year after being pictured with a latex penis during a visit to a sex shop in a Tenerife shopping centre ahead of municipal and regional elections.
The right-wing politician responded to critics of the photo showing him posing with the giant phallus and two shop assistants holding up his election leaflets by telling them to 'be happier' and saying: 'I bring out affection in people who naturally freely publish a photo on their social media, even if some turn it into a controversy.'
Last week Spanish opera singer Ainhoa Arteta claimed Britain's favourite holiday destination attracts too many 'flip-flop'-wearing tourists.
The four-times-married soprano said the Spanish government should be doing more to attract holidaymakers seeking a cultural experience.
The Basque-born 59-year-old, who first performed in London in 1999 with Placido Domingo, voiced her concern in an interview ahead of the Canary Island protests last Saturday, which were backed by campaigners who organised smaller support events in cities including London, Berlin and Malaga.
'Go Home Tourist' has been scrawled in English over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in Nou Llevant, Mallorca, a neighbourhood that has seen a massive influx of foreign buyers over the past few years
The islands are threatened by sea pollution, traffic gridlock and lack of cheap affordable housing linked to the pushing-up of property prices because of Airbnb-style holiday lets
Other demands from protestors include the protection of natural spaces, a tourist tax and better working conditions for hotel cleaners
The politician caused controversy last year after being pictured with a latex penis during a visit to a sex shop in a Tenerife shopping centre
Arteta, whose husbands have included American baritone Dwayne Croft, touched on the type of tourism Spain attracts after being asked whether opera in her homeland is in a healthy state.
READ HERE: Tenerife cabbies have a punch-up in front of shocked British tourists… as the island tries to move away from 'low-class' UK holidaymakers!
AdvertisementShe told Majorcan daily Diario de Mallorca in an interview: 'Not at all. Spain is a cainite country, it's not a country that helps its singers and musicians.
'And it's a shame because we have truly talented singers.
'If this country exploited its cultural-historical patrimony and accompanied it in all our theatres and auditoriums with ambitious programmes, we would attract cultural and not flip-flop tourism.'
She added, in a clear reference to Barcelona and Madrid: 'The Ministry of Tourism and Culture should act together and we should be conscious there's culture around the country, not just in two cities.'
It comes after the April 20 protests saw more than 50,000 furious campaigners storming the streets, claiming the huge influx of tourists to the island is causing major environmental damage, driving down wages and squeezing locals out of cheap affordable housing, forcing dozens to live in tents and cars instead.
Canary Island natives took to the streets on April 20 to demand the government temporarily limits tourist arrivals
Demonstrators packed into Weyler Square in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz, the start point for a march on the Brit-popular holiday island
Protests also got underway at the same time in the other islands in the archipelago, including Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, with support demos scheduled for the Spanish mainland in cities like Malaga and Madrid as well as London and Berlin.
READ HERE: Now Brits holidaying in Tenerife could be slapped with a tourist tax, Canary Islands leader warns - after more than 50,000 residents joined massive street protest against tourism
AdvertisementCampaigners were also quick to distance themselves from anti-tourist graffiti which appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month.
At the beginning of this week a picture was published in local press showing the words 'Go Home' on a hire car in Tenerife.
'Go Home Tourist' was also scrawled in English over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in Nou Llevant, Mallorca, a neighbourhood that has seen a massive influx of foreign buyers over the past few years.
Island newspaper Diario de Mallorca described it as the first example of tourism-phobia in Nou Llevant, and said it was targeted at the neighbourhood's 'new foreign residents.'
In the last four years more than 750 apartments worth up to €2.5million (£2million) have been built there.
Around 70 per cent of the properties are said to have been snapped up by foreigners, mainly Germans.
Protest groups including Canarias Se Agota, which in English translates literally as 'The Canary Islands are Exhausted', want the authorities to paralyse two tourist projects including one which involves the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife's last virgin beaches.
They are also seeking a commitment from regional politicians to change the tourist model and protect islands like Tenerife from the worst excesses of mass tourism, including sea pollution, traffic gridlock and lack of cheap affordable housing linked to the pushing-up of property prices because of Airbnb-style holiday lets.
Other demands include the protection of natural spaces, a tourist tax and better working conditions for hotel cleaners, who joined today's protest in Santa Cruz as they insisted to local press: 'We are not slaves.'