Fighting for Sustainability: A Case Study about Tenerife's Activism Movement

Sammanfattning: This research explores the perspectives of the opinion leaders of the activism movement in Tenerife on tourism on the island and the solutions proposed by these stakeholders to the current sustainability problems related to tourism. These issues include tourist's misbehavior in natural protected areas, waste, submarine emissions of residual water sewage, water shortage, gentrification, overtourism, overpopulation, 14,6% of unemployment in 2022, decline of agricultural land, high population density, etc. Furthermore, this study looks into how sustainability is articulated by the activism movement. The information was gathered from seven semi-structured interviews with opinion leaders of the activism movement with backgrounds in different fields including terrestrial biology, marine biology, archaeology, apiculture and agriculture. A thematic analysis was used to catalogue their responses into common topics to gain an overall picture of their perspective. The activist movement perceives the current tourism model as part of a system that needs to change by controlling and setting boundaries to tourist flows, immigration, construction and real state. Furthermore, they suggest a societal change towards valuing the natural and cultural heritage of the island. Sustainability is articulated by the activists as a balance between humans and nature, which should be obtained through a democratic decision-making process that assesses a common sustainable vision in line with scientific evidence. The activists further suggest that the transition towards sustainability requires cooperation between top-down changes and bottom-up changes, which will ultimately also transform the type of tourism on the island.