Social media transformed the small town of Bocacangrejo, Tenerife, overnight. The tranquility of this enclave of barely 380 inhabitants suddenly disappeared. What had always been a humble fishing village suddenly became the scene of hundreds of Instagram posts. Dozens of tourists filled the streets just to take photos next to the colorful hearts that local resident Rafa had painted on the beach promenade. The city has become uninhabitable, forcing Rafa to cover his heart with gray paint. The beach of Las Palomitas, in Fuerteventura, or the Barranco de las Vacas in Gran Canaria are other corners of the Canary Islands that have become overcrowded due to tourism “all for the photo”, which endangers the conservation of the natural spaces of the ‘archipelago.
Networks have completely transformed the dynamics of tourism. “People don’t want to feel like they’re just tourists. They want to be travelers or explorers and be outside the tourist circuits,” analyzes the director of digital and social media for Canary Islands tourism, Sara Sánchez-Romo. The research “The TikTok effect on destination development: famous overnight, what now? (The TIkTok effect on destination development: famous overnight, what now?)by Yana Wengel, emphasizes that the popularity that certain corners of the planet are gaining thanks to the Internet surprises administrations which do not have sufficient infrastructure to protect spaces.
At this point, environmentalist specializing in terrestrial biodiversity and conservation Adrián Flores emphasizes that the problem of managing natural environments is structural. “It is true that today many places become fashionable from one moment to the next and it may take more time to react, but in the case of Teide, which is the fourth national park most visited in the world, surveillance is zero. There was time,” he says.
Flores also cites the Maspalomas Dunes natural area as an example of territorial degradation. Although there are marked trails and signs prohibiting travel on these great mountains of sand, in 2023 alone, 322 sanctions were issued for breaking the rules of this protected enclave. One of the bloodiest attacks took place in February this year, when a mass appeal organized by YouTubers He gathered dozens of people in the surrounding area to find “using bags and shovels” money hidden under the dunes.
“After the pandemic we suffered a very strong increase in digital content that encouraged travel to the islands, because the reality is that we were coming out of a stage that generated a lot of uncertainty in the sector and we thought that any promotion was good,” says Álvaro Jiménez, content creator and tourism graduate from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. ‘No one expected the demand to increase so exponentially that we weren’t able to. to support it as a destination It has been proven that the consequences we suffer are very negative for protected areas,” he adds.
Sara Sánchez-Romo highlights that currently, young travelers plan their trips through the content they consume on social networks and not through official profiles. ”Reaching these new audiences through an official brand is complicated, which is why we carry out actions with influencers or voices of authority who are in line with the values we wish to convey. “Our mission is to redirect tourist flows and try to avoid overpopulation,” specifies the expert.
“The networks have become the new catalogs of travel agencies, and you can make an incredibly detailed guide without leaving Instagram or TikTok, knowing what you want to see, where you are going to stay and how much you are going to spend,” adds Jiménez. On the other side of the scale, in relation to content that promotes the secret corners of the islands, we see a proliferation of profiles of people aware of the natural values of the Canary Islands, who try to enhance the biodiversity of the islands.
“Part of the responsibility falls on us, local creators. Not everything is worth a handful tastes and a viral video. This can be a very simple way to reach a large audience and improve a profile’s stats, but from my point of view it is very unethical,” he adds.
The digital and social media director of Turismo Islas Canarias insists that “local communities must be respected”. The overpopulation of the archipelago has awakened a major social movement for the conservation of the territory. On October 20, a demonstration against the “predatory” tourist model will take place on all the islands under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a limit”. “We already find tourists even in the most remote cove, the old restaurant… The consequence is that prices are increasing,” explains a resident of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
