'Stay away' - Lanzarote and Tenerife residents in warning to tourists amid collapse fears

Locals in some parts of the Canary Islands have issued a 'stay away' warning to tourists amid fears the area could collapse due to huge numbers of visitors every year.

The Canaries, particularly Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Tenerife are hugely popular with Irish holidaymakers with a recent Irish Times survey placing Lanzarote as the top holiday destination worldwide for Irish sunseekers.

Urban planners have said the region is close to systematic collapse due to the millions that visit the stunning Spanish islands each year.

Speaking for Ben Magec-Ecologists in Action, Eugenio Reyes said: "The Canary Islands territory was more than overexploited. We had exceeded the carrying capacity of the territory by seven times, resulting in a scenario of systemic collapse due to the urban development structure."

Some locals have also been saying that tourism is ruining their own living standard on the islands with increased cost of living and a lack of public services. 

One local took to X and said: "We [the Canary Islands] absorb an enormous amount of this tourism for little in exchange: s**t jobs and wages, territorial destruction, ecocide and terrible public services because ‘we don't pull our weight’. When will this madness end?"

Another woman said "Islanders can’t live there due to tourism" and urged holidaymakers, like the thousands from Ireland every year, to "stay away."

A third person said: "Stop! No more hotels and less tourism in the Canary Islands. Tourism moratorium now!!"

The slogan 'tourists go home' has begun trending in Tenerife where protests have taken place calling for an eco tax for tourists.

The protesters have warned that sewage spills, traffic jams and environmental damage caused by over-tourism and new hotel complexes along the popular beaches of south Tenerife were starting to diminish the natural wonder of the island.