Tenerife and Lanzarote warned after sending 'reminder' to UK tourists

Tenerife and Lanzarote have been warned UK tourists have "only been encouraged" to book holidays after protests. Canary Islands locals have been warned UK tourists are flocking to book holidays and vacations ahead of the spring and summer getaway.

Package holiday firm On The Beach has seen sales rise by a third compared with the two weeks before the protests, reports The Sun. Bookings are already up 18 per cent in 2023 - weeks after locals flocked to the streets to protest and demonstrate over UK holidaymakers.

Local Samantha Hasala said: “Lots of people are saying, ‘We don’t want tourists here anymore’ — but it is not really about British people. It’s just because most of our tourists are British." The local went on and said: "We love British people.”

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Leigh Buckingham, from Chorley, in Lancashire, spoke out after booking a hotel stay and said: “I saw the protests but it hasn’t stopped me — it actually reminded me to book. We love it there. We go pretty much every year. Who can argue with lots of sun, sand and sangria?”

Zoe Harris, from On The Beach, said: “We’ve been analysing booking numbers closely since the protests and it seems it’s only encouraged more Brits to book. Thousands have made their holiday plans concrete in the last few weeks.

"We’re expecting more bookings to fly in.” Police said 20,000 people had turned out for the demonstrations, but organisers put the figure closer to 50,000, Spain’s TVE public television said. Protesters also gathered in Madrid and Barcelona to show their support for the rallies in the Canary Islands, public television said.

“We are not against tourism,” Rosario Correo, one of the protesters, told TVE. Rosario went on and said: “We’re asking that they change this model that allows for unlimited growth of tourism.”