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Brit, 57, Slammed After Being Unmasked As Leader In Tenerife’s Anti-Tourism Campaign

brit,-57,-slammed-after-being-unmasked-as-leader-in-tenerife’s-anti-tourism-campaign

Brit, 57, Slammed After Being Unmasked As Leader In Tenerife’s Anti-Tourism Campaign

Brian Harrison was born and raised in South Wales – but he is one of the most active members of an organisation that protests against tourism in Tenerife 12:26, Tue, Aug 27, 2024 | UPDATED: 12:44, Tue, Aug 27, 2024

Brian Harrison is campaiging against overtourism in Tenerife (Image: Getty/ITV)

A Welshman who is leading protests about overtourism in the Canary Islands has rejected claims that he is a hypocrite.

Brian Harrison is the secretary general of ‘Salvar La Tejita’, an organisation that campaigns to limit the number of tourists allowed to visit Tenerife.  Locals have turned out in their thousands this summer to protest against overtourism. 

Elsewhere in Spain, tourists in Barcelona were sprayed with water pistols as protesters chanted “no tourists here”.  Mr Harrison – who was born and raised in Bridgend, South Wales, but now spearheads anti-tourism protests in Tenerife – admits he is regularly accused of hypocrisy.   

Demonstrations against tourism have taken place in other parts of Spain too (Image: Getty)

“’Don’t you think it’s a bit hypocritical?’ is the main question I’m asked,” Mr Harrison said with a strong Welsh accent, reported the Telegraph.   However, the 57-year-old engineer says he  “didn’t just go on holiday to Spain and stay there”.

Mr Harrison argues that he has lived in Tenerife for most of his life, after making a plan to move to Spain when he was still a young man.  “Why wouldn’t anyone want to take care of a place they’ve lived in for over 30 years?” said Mr Harrison.

He says that he doesn’t not “feel obliged to be British” and has no plans to leave Tenerife.  And he said that while he’s in Tenerife he will “fit in with the culture”. 

“If I was in Australia, if I was in Bali, I’d do the same,”  added Mr Harrison.

Some protestors in Tenerife went on huger strike (Image: Getty)

A spokesperson for Salvar La Tejita has also defended Mr Harrison’s involvement.  Daniel Duque, 46, said Mr Harrison is one of  the association’s most active members.  

“It’s better for us that he is British because it dispels the myth that all British people want more tourists,” said Mr Duque.  He also said that Tenerife needs to attract higher-quality tourists. 

“We know we owe a lot to tourists but it has to change,” added Mr Duque.  “We have to leave behind the ‘tourism of quantity’ and replace it with the ‘tourism of quality.’

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The protests are likely to continue (Image: Getty)

Mr Duque’s comments echo those of Mateu Hernández, the head of the public-private body Barcelona Tourism, which has supported the city’s hosting of the America’s Cup.  He said: “We need to improve the quality of those who visit. But people confuse quality with wealth.

“What we want is people who come here to do something, whether it’s to visit museums or enjoy the architecture and the gastronomy.”  

However, Barcelonians fear plans to attract €1bn of revenue by pandering to super-rich tourists will turn their city into a playground for the wealthy – like Monte Carlo or Monaco.

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