Anti-tourist protesters begin HUNGER STRIKE in Tenerife: Desperate move follows wave of anti-tourist graffiti, with demonstrators saying life on the island is 'unsustainable'

Activists yesterday began an indefinite hunger strike in Tenerife as part of a protest against the effects of mass tourism on island life.

Nearly a dozen campaigners for a more sustainable type of tourism have gone ahead with their threat outside a church in the historic city of La Laguna.

The protest has been organised by a platform called Canarias Se Agota, which in English translates literally as 'The Canary Islands Are Exhausted' and is linked to several associations including ecologist groups.

The hunger strikers want the authorities to halt two tourist projects, one involving the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife's last virgin beaches called La Tejita.

They also want local and regional politicians to change the tourist model to protect the island from the worst excesses of mass tourism including sea pollution, traffic gridlock and lack of cheap affordable housing linked to the pushing-up of property prices because of Airbnb-style holiday lets.

The names of those taking part in the hunger strike have so far been kept secret and they are not expected to give interviews while the extreme protest continues in a square called Plaza de la Concepcion outside a church of the same name.

The start of the radical campaign, believed to be the first of its kind in Spain, follows the appearance of anti-tourist graffiti in parts of Tenerife.

Campaigners have been quick to distance themselves from the graffiti and have accused politicians of 'dirty tricks' by accusing them of tourism-phobia.

Victor Martin, a spokesman for Canarias Se Agota who won't be stopping eating but is fronting the protest, 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.'

Alfonso Boullon, a spokesman for the organisation Salvar La Tejita which is aligned to Canarias Se Agota, added just before the hunger strike started: '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.

'It's a model that is totally unsustainable, it exhausts resources and the environment.

'We want a moratorium on the number of tourist beds available so they don't increase and the paralysation of the tourist complexes Hotel La Tejita and Cuna del Alma as a show of commitment towards a real will for change.'

He added: 'We're going to do all we can to make sure the hunger strikers' lives are not put at risk and we hope the politicians listen to their people and take the measures we want taken.'

Another activist involved in the organisation of the hunger strike called it a 'desperate cry for a better future for our islands,' adding: 'The Canarian government will be responsible for the consequences.'

Hotel La Tejita is a hotel project for over 800 guests in the south of the island which campaigners are trying to get stopped because they say it will be built partly over protected sand dunes and public coastal domain.

Cuna del Alma, the other project which has angered activists, is a Belgian-funded venture to build a hotel and 3,600 tourist chalets at El Puertito in the municipality of Adeje which is also in southern Tenerife.

Protest groups say the project would destroy large areas of habitats of endangered and protected species.

Canarias Se Agota has insisted it has nothing to do with the graffiti that has appeared in parts of Tenerife over recent weeks.

Messages in English left on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife included 'My misery your paradise' and 'Average salary in Canary Islands is 1,200 euros.'

In 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.'

In nine days' time on April 20 simultaneous marches will take place on at least five of the archipelago islands including Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote by campaigners seeking to ram home the message the hunger strikers want to get across to regional politicians.

In Tenerife the march will take place in the island capital Santa Cruz.

An activist leading a noisy protest ahead of the start of the hunger strike yesterday afternoon in La Laguna in northern Tenerife, which holds the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site, said of the April 20 protests: 'The miserable wages, the lack of housing, overpopulation, the deterioration of natural spaces and the collapse of the roads are some of the things that have led the Canarian population to demonstrate later this month.

'Our political leaders are beginning to tremble because of this grass-roots Canarian movement which is powerful and unstoppable.'

She said the islands' political leaders had two choices - to carry on taking them 'towards the precipice' or listen to the alternatives that had been on the table for decades instead of trying to blacken the name of campaigners by accusing them of tourism-phobia.

She received a huge round of applause as she added to a crowd stood around her: 'We have had to climb up cranes because our political leaders have made us invisible.

'And today on April 11 we have had to resort to stopping eating and putting our lives at risk.'

One of the protestors listening beside her held up a map showing the eight inhabited Canary Islands with a message on it in Spanish saying: 'When one cries, we all cry.'

Canary Islands regional president Fernando Clavijo admitted last week he was worried tourists might be put off coming to the area, although this week he softened his message and described the April 20 protests as an opportunity to 'revise' the current tourism model.

Jorge Marichal, president of regional hotel association ASHOTEL, 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.