Ben Magec – Ecologists in Action, an expert environmental campaign group, issued a warning about overtourism in the Canary Islands after the destination received more than 48 million tourists in 2023.
According to the environmental group, the infrastructure is not able to endure the masses of tourists visiting.
“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,” the group wrote.
The report highlights how resources on islands such as Lanzarote and Tenerife are being exploited, and the mass generation of waste is causing irreversible damage to the environment.
Last month, protestors on the islands warned that the development of new hotel complexes and mass tourism hubs, such as Santa Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna, were causing sewage spills, traffic jams and environmental damage, reports birminghammail.co.uk.
Mass tourism in the Canaries has also resulted in accommodation costs for tourists increasing by more than 10%, according to mirror.co.uk.
TUI, Jet2 and Ryanair, airlines that serve the UK and German markets, issued a joint letter to the Canary Islands, saying that skyrocketing accommodation costs would negatively impact travel and that its source markets would not be able to afford the prices due to recent recessions.
