Activists protesting against the effects of mass tourism on a popular British holiday hotspot of Tenerife has started a hunger-strike.
Protesters who are campaigning for a more sustainable type of tourism have gone ahead with their threat outside a church in the city of La Laguna in Tenerife.
The group organising the protest, Canarias Se Agota, translated as "The Canary Islands Are Exhausted" is linked to several associations including ecologist groups.
Activists are demanding authorities halt two tourist projects, one involving the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife's last virgin beaches called La Tejita.
The protest has started at the tourist hotspot
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Spokesman for Canarias Se Agota Victor Martin said: "The hunger strike is indefinite and will continue until the two macro projects we're fighting against are stopped for ever and the regional agreement agrees in writing to sit down and talk to us about a tourist moratorium.
"A tragedy could occur and someone could die if the government don't listen."Martin won't be stopping eating himself, despite fronting the protest.
A spokesman for the organisation Salvar La Tejita which is aligned to Canarias Se Agota, added: "This hunger strike is designed to push for a change of social and economic model in the Canary Islands, which is fundamentally affected by tourism which the islands' economy is based around.
"It's not an anti-tourist protest, it's a protest aimed at reformulating the model that has led us to where we are today."
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The hunger strike has started in the holiday destination
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Protesters begin a hunger strike
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Activists hold a human chain protest
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Hotel La Tejita is a hotel project for over 800 guests in the south of the island. Campaigners say it will be built partly over protected sand dunes and public coastal domain.
The other project, Cuna del Alma, has enraged activists as protest groups say the project would destroy large areas of habitats of endangered and protected species.
Canarias Se Agota have denied being involved with messages graffitied on the walls of the city, including "Tourists go home" and "Too many guiris", meaning uncouth foreign tourists.
Messages in English left on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife including an apparent UK backlash, a response left in English on a wall next to a "Tourists go home" message said: "F**k off, we pay your wages."
Activists start a hunger strike, next to the Church of La Concepcion in La Laguna
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Activists start a hunger strike, next to the Church of La Concepcion in La Laguna
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The protesters also want local and regional politicians to change the tourist model to protect the island from the worst excesses of mass tourism.
This includes sea pollution, traffic gridlock and lack of cheap affordable housing linked to the pushing-up of property prices because of Airbnb-style holiday lets.
President of regional hotel association ASHOTEL Jorge Marichal claimed last week tourists were ringing establishments to ask whether it was safe to come.
He has insisted "non-regulated" holiday lets are a big problem and the reason there is less control than there should be on the numbers of tourists in places like Tenerife.
