Canary Island holidays: Canary Island resident slams press over anti-tourism coverage as locals 'want British people here'

A Canary Island resident has slammed the British press for its coverage on the anti-tourism protests sweeping across the country. Dave Gainford, who runs successful travel and trips via his company TravelOnWorld, said Canary Island locals “definitely want British people here but I don’t think they want your ‘typical’ Brits abroad”.

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There have been reports that UK holidaymakers are not welcome in the Canary Islands as tourists were met with anti-tourist graffiti in Tenerife during the Easter holidays. Residents living in the Canary Islands say they are “fed up” of British tourists who only “drink cheap beer, lie in the sun and eat low-quality food”.

UK holidaymakers were also issued a Canary Islands travel warning after it was announced that mass protests will take place in Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and La Palma against overtourism on 20 April. The protests on April 20 have been organised under the banner: "The Canary Islands have a limit". 

Mr Gainford, who has lived in the Canary Islands for 20 years, said: “I must stress I asked people on the mainland of Spain as well as German people, Dutch, and people from Sweden, if they are getting the same reports” of tourists not being welcome and “nobody had heard anything.” He added that he “struggled to find any person who lives and works on the island that in some way doesn’t benefit from tourism”.