This is the bizarre moment anti-tourism protesters in Lanzarote stormed a beach-front hotel and began washing their dish cloths in the pool as sunbathers watched on from their loungers amid growing tensions over the island’s water supplies.
Demonstrators poured into the Papagayo Arena hotel in Playa Blanca on Monday holding banners with the slogans ‘This Hotel Is Illegal’ and ‘Our Water Is In Your Pool’ to protest the hotel’s handling of the ongoing water shortages racking the Spanish island.
Members of activist group ‘Lanzarote Has a Limit’, were seen filling containers with water from the hotel’s swimming pools. Fed-up locals have grown frustrated with recent water cuts and claim tourists staying at hotels enjoy an endless supply.
Footage shared by the group on Instagram shows one of the protesters washing her dish cloths with pool water, while other demonstrators hold banners condemning the hotel.
‘Filled pools, illegal hotels and villages with no water,’ the Instagram caption read.
Protesters were also seen handing out flyers, which read: ‘Now that you know, if you stay at the Sandos Papagayo, you are complicit in this environmental crime’ to hotel guests.
The pamphlets outline the ongoing water supply issues on the island.
Islanders are also currently facing severe water cuts due to low supply amid a period of droughts.
The group, alongside other organizations, is also calling for a larger demonstration on October 20th across the Canary Islands to protest against the government’s tourism model and exploitation of local resources.
‘This does not represent the interests or voices of us who live here, but rather follows the same pattern of exclusion as always’, said environmental group Atan Tenerife.
‘While we are sold the idea of a Canary Islands “of the future” that only a few are building, the reality is that this future is being designed without the real participation of society’.
The protest is the latest in a string of anti-tourism protests across Spain, leaving countless visitors fuming after paying hundreds of pounds to enjoy their time abroad.
The summer months saw tens of thousands of Spaniards flooding cities including Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and Santa Cruz de Tenerife for the whole season to discourage the more than 85 million tourists who visit Spain every year.
It comes amid widespread dissatisfaction in Spain over pay, housing and opportunities, which residents believe has been made worse by over-tourism.
For the six months to the end of June, 42.5 million international visitors travelled nto the country, with June alone recording a 12% rise to 9 million as the busier summer period picks up, according to Spain’s data agency INE.
That means 2024 is shaping up to be another record year for Spain, already the world’s second most visited country behind France, making it likely it will beat last year’s high of 85 million tourists, when numbers exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
Data shows visitors are increasingly opting to stay in rental apartments, rather than hotels, driving up demand for flats and incentivising landlords to buy up housing at the expense of residents.
The number of visitors to Spain in the first-half of the year staying in that type of accommodation was up 30%, while those staying in hotels was up 11%.
Aggrieved locals recently made headlines by chaining off the 22 entrances to their private community, which is known for its narrow cobbled alleys meandering through its whitewashed houses.