Residents say they want to attract more discerning visitors who would appreciate the Canary Islands' culture and food more than a dominant influx from the UK.
Tenerife residents have demanded 'higher quality' tourists in a spiralling war against British holidaymakers they say drink cheap beer while scoffing burgers and chips.
Yet a wave of new anti-tourism graffiti has popped up near resorts over recent days, with messages reading 'tourists go home' and 'too many guiris', using a disparaging Spanish slang word for foreigners.
'This was a paradise but now it's not and it makes me angry. We must reduce the number of flights and visitors and focus on bringing higher quality people.' She said: 'It's like there are two worlds in Tenerife, the tourists and the locals, and we don't mix. And later this month, on April 20, a second large protest is being planned by a string of environmental and social groups, again in the capital.
Last August protesters voiced their concerns over tourists, brandishing signs with slogans reading 'The Canaries are no longer a paradise' and 'The Canaries are not for sale'. The Canary Islands' president today made an appeal for 'common sense' from those who protest against tourism - the main source of income on the island - and admitted he was concerned about the growing anti-tourism movement and its potential impact on revenue for the region.
EXCLUSIVEREAD MORE: 'We hate the 16 million visitors every year...the island has collapsed': Canary Island locals voice their SUPPORT for mystery graffiti artist daubing anti-tourist slogans around their 'prison paradise' Advertisement 'What began as a call for the island of Tenerife under the motto"The Canary Islands have a limit" has now spread throughout almost the entire archipelago.
The vice president of the hotel association has also pointed out that the Canary Islands are a 'young' tourist destination and recalled that decades ago it was the inhabitants of the islands who emigrated due to lack of resources, to add that tourism generates 35% of the GDP, in the archipelago, so we must be 'cautious'.
Jaime Coello, president of the Telesforo Bravo Foundation, said the current system of mass tourism occupying 'every inch of the ground' was leading to many environmental problems and generating social problems including a lack of affordable housing. He told MailOnline: 'It's a crisis - we have to change things urgently. People are living in their cars and even in caves and locals can't eat, drink or live well.'The benefits of the industry are not trickling down to everyday people, whose salaries have not increased in years, the quality of life here is collapsing.'Jay Neil, 43, said locals need to stop taking out all the problems on tourists.
READ MORE: Boozed up Brits on tour are NOT welcome in Seville, says local mayor: Spanish council moves to outlaw scantily clad hen and stag dos Advertisement Biologist Anne Striewe, 47, also told MailOnline of the damaging effect she fears tourism has on wildlife. Environmental group Salvar Tenerife says millions of litres of sewage water are being dumped into the sea off Tenerife and other islands each day, with the amount rising significantly when there is a high number of holidaymakers.
Melissa Taylor, 47, who works in the popular Giddy Goose English pub in Las Playas de las Americas, told MailOnline: 'The anti-tourism stuff has suddenly peaked recently.'Brits come here and spend a lot of money, the overwhelming majority of our customers are from the UK.' Another bar worker and mother-of-three Emma Barker, 43, from Leeds, said: 'Obviously it's ridiculous to bash tourism because without it there would be no jobs - the economy relies so heavily on it.
'We've been coming here for 20 years and have more than helped the economy, we Brits always get a bad rep but we bring all the money in.'
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