The President of Tenerife’s Cabildo government, Rosa Dávila, announced on Wednesday that the first pilot scheme in the so-called ‘ecotax’ on the island will begin this summer for visitors to the Masca ravine area.

The idea is to charge tourists, defined as non-resident, for access to natural and protected areas. The small fee, the amount of which is still yet to be decided, will be accompanied by improvements to environmental security and bolstered local infrastructure in the area.

The Masca ravine, in the Teno rural park, will also reopen its jetty, which has been closed since 2018. Masca is one of Tenerife’s oldest and most breathtaking hiking routes, culminating in the Los Gigantes cliffs on the coast.

At a press conference, Dávila indicated that a three-way agreement will be signed between Buenavista council, the municipality to which Masca belongs, Puertos de Tenerife, and the Cabildo.

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In theory, a daily limit of 275 visitors will be implemented (Spanish media report that the annual capacity is estimated to be around 100,000) but tourists and non-residents will not be forced to take any particular route or itinerary and can travel freely to the area themselves or through tourist companies. However, bus services will be used to better regulate access to the site.

Dávila also suggested that the publicly-owned company Tragsa will handle the tourist charge, pending a decision on a wider ‘ecotax’ entrance fees for other natural areas across the Canary Islands. Fees for other natural areas of the island are set to be charged from January 1st 2025.

With regards to the cost, Dávila pointed out that “we are working on the analysis of the economic impact” and added that “we had anticipated that the Cabildo would cover the cost for residents of Tenerife”, which confirms that any entrance fee or ‘ecotax’ will only be levied on tourists and non-residents and that locals won’t have to pay it.

This comes amid bubbling anti-tourist sentiment in Tenerife and the Canary Islands. Concerns about the over-touristification of the islands, which causes environmental and housing pressures, has led to several protests in recent months.

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A proliferation of short-term tourist rental properties, particularly in the post-pandemic period, has priced many locals out of their own areas.

The ecotax, however, is not a flat tourist tax in the traditional sense, and right-wing parties on the islands previously rejected the idea of a tourist tax.

Catalonia and the Balearic Islands both charge holidaymakers tourist taxes, often tacked onto hotel bills. Spain’s Valencia region was also planning to until the right-wing government now in power revoked the law early in 2024.

However, measures approved by the Canary Parliament in April were to charge an entrance fee to visit Tenerife’s key sites and natural spaces, like at Masca, as well as not giving up any more land to hotels and other tourist complexes.

This comes after tens of thousands of protesters took the streets of all eight Canary Islands and European cities such as London, Berlin and Madrid in April under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a limit”.

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