Panic in Canary Islands as new crisis hits tourist areas in Tenerife

Education unions in the tourist hotspot have raised the alarm over the 'complicated' trend (Image: Getty)

Officials in a European tourist hotspot have sounded the alarm over rising rents driving underpaid teachers away. The Canary Islands is among the parts of Europe most impacted by rocketing numbers of foreign tourists, with local demonstrators taking to the streets calling for action to stop wealthy expats buying up properties and driving up house prices. While the impact of overtourism in holiday resorts across the continent is nothing new, officials in Tenerife and Gran Canaria have highlighted a worrying trend linked to higher property prices - teachers being driven away from popular areas because they can't afford the cost of living.

Average rent on the archipelago rose to €1,200 (£998) per month earlier this year, marking a 21% increase over a five-year period and surpassing the national average. It means that teachers - especially those on temporary contracts - are spending around 50% of their salaries on housing costs, posing a "very complicated" and damaging threat to the region's educational system.

Residents in the tourist hotspot have called for action against growing overtourism (Image: Getty)

Pedro Crespo, president of the ANPE teachers' union on the Canary Islands, warned that many teachers are rejecting short-term and substitute placements because "the cost of rent doesn't match the salary, especially when moving between islands with no guarantee of continuity".

Mr Crespo said the trend was, in some cases, leaving teacher positions unfilled for long periods and negatively impacting students as a result, the Canarian Weekly reports.

The archipelago's government has come under increasing pressure in recent months to clamp down on rising tourist numbers and a housing market inflated by overseas demand.

Teachers' unions have now joined the charge and are urging those in power to bring in measures to combat an exodus of educational workers before the trend becomes more widespread and its repercussions evident in new generations of schoolchildren.

Among the proposed measures are a housing allowance, providing additional financial support for teachers, similar to a model employed on the Balearic Islands, which is famously suffering from the fallout of its own tourism problem.

Union members have also suggested opening up vacant student accommodation to teachers on short-term contracts and introducing agreements between the government and local councils requiring them to offer housing for vital workers, also including healthcare staff and civil servants.

The Canary Islands' educational department has acknowledged the issue but said it currently has no spare residential space to offer to teachers struggling to find somewhere to live during temporary positions.

The fresh calls for action to combat overtourism come just weeks after the archipelago recorded its highest-ever number of international visitors, with a staggering 1.08 million arriving in June - a 3.15% year-on-year increase, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).