Tenerife warns UK tourists still planning holiday to 'arrive knowing'

A Tenerife war on UK expats is coming because locals fear they'll become "extinct" at the hands of Brits who are moving abroad. UK expats and tourists heading to the European Union holiday hotspot for holidays and a new life have faced tensions in recent days.

One activist Atterni Rivero Quintero revealed to a UK newspaper she has been forced to flee El Medano in the south of Tenerife. “I felt like a foreigner in my own village,” she explained. “I didn't feel well there. There were too many people and a lack of parking.

"The people originally from the village were gone, there were too many new faces and nobody said hello.” She went on: “If there is no change now, people will have to leave. They are no longer just colonising the coasts, but also the centre of the island.

READ MORE UK braced for first 'official' heatwave of year with temperatures in 'high 20s'

"If nothing changes, we will have to leave. Like species with climate change, we will become extinct.” She added: “We don't want the destruction of natural places to continue. So much tourism and so many new residents are building new houses and destroying nature.

“The protests now are connected to everything I have experienced, this gentrification. I can't live in my village anymore because there is a lot of tourism. It's not quiet here anymore.” She told the Express: “My grandparents grew tomatoes in El Medano and they were able to buy land there.

“I had a very happy childhood, very close to nature, to the sea, to the mountains, we knew where to swim depending on the tide, we knew what the sea was like depending on the moon. It was a very nice childhood and we were very few people. It makes me feel very bad that people have to leave El Medano. I would love to be able to go back. We could have the same social fabric in El Medano as we have [in her new home of] Granadilla.”

She continued: “The Canaries are not known for their architecture or for their museums; it is known worldwide for nature. It is on the podium. Hawaii, Galapagos and the Canary Islands. [We should] let tourists come to see that, but have some respect for nature. I work in a natural park and there is always disrespect.”

“If you come to visit Tenerife, do it knowing the reality that we Canary Islanders are living," she said. “Don't buy from places that don't belong to Canary Islanders, don't stay in hotels or housing that are not truly local."