ADEJE (TENERIFE), 27 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
A group of activists from Puertito de Adeje who are protesting against the construction of the ‘Cuna del Alma’ tourist complex broke into the annual meeting of European hoteliers this Thursday and confronted the president of the national employers’ association, Jorge Marichal –who has invited them to debate with them– and the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosana Morillo.
The activists demanded the “urgent” need for an “absolute” rethinking of the current economic and political model that involves a tourist moratorium and the establishment of an eco-tax, as well as strict compliance with regional, national and community environmental and urban regulations. .
One of them has questioned Morillo about the “greenwashing” practiced by public institutions and the tourism sector and has reproached him for the housing problems that exist on the islands due to the development of tourist apartments while calling him “exploitative”. to Marichal.
“We do not swallow the lies of businessmen or politicians,” he snapped at them, stressing that citizens are “fed up” with a “predatory” tourism model that “is destroying” the life model of citizens.
The activists have warned that the Canary Islands receive more than 15 million tourists a year “and 44.6% of the Canaries suffer from poverty and social exclusion” with a tourism model that “creates precarious jobs, seasonality, low wages and black contracts , as well as a pressing housing problem, and extreme vulnerability due to dependence on this sector”.
They also recalled the threat it poses to the natural spaces and biodiversity of the archipelago.
