01 April 2024 , 10:15
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Brits heading to the Canary Islands for a holiday may soon find themselves unable to light up as they once could.
The Spanish islands' government is considering going further than an already fairly radical new plan against smoking made by Spain's Ministry of Health. The regional authority wants to do even more to protect people from second-hand smoke, as is proposed in the national bill.
The proposed changes would mean no smoking on outdoor bar and restaurant terraces on the holiday islands. The smoking ban would also come into force at bus stop shelters, outdoor sports areas and near entrances to buildings such as schools and hospitals, according to Canarian Weekly.
The Canary Islands government also wants to treat electronic cigarettes and vaping products like tobacco when it comes to taxes and laws, while bringing in a ban of single-use vapes due to the terrible impact they have on the environment. The UK has recently passed a law similarly banning the disposable products. Also as the UK has, the Canarian government is considering making cigarette package design uniform.
The regional authority is said to be requesting firm financial planning to ensure the success of suggested measures, along with a national rule for applying anti-smoking rules uniformly throughout Spain. There is no clear time scale for the proposals as they have yet to be agreed by the government.
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The regulations reportedly include barring smoking on all outdoor bar and restaurant terraces ((Image: GETTY-STOCK))The Canary Islands are much loved by UK visitors. In fact, over a third of the 14.1million travellers who visited the islands last year were British - a whopping 5.7million people.
These islands' popularity is taking a toll on local facilities and services due to the heavy flow of tourists, however. Officials on the island chain beloved by Brits have raised more concerns that tourism is "exploiting" these holiday hotspots.
Academics at Las Palmas University recently told the Mirror about the threats the holiday hotspots face including a massive sewage problem, a chronic housing shortage and chaos on the roads. While they are frank about the problems the Spanish islands face to retain their reputation as Europe's go-to sunshine destination, the professors have made it clear that Canarians remain as welcome and happy to greet visitors from across the world as ever.
They said that before messages like 'Tourists go home,' 'My misery your paradise,' and 'Average salary in Canary Islands is 1,200' were slapped onto walls in Palm-Mar, a small town in the largest of the Canary Islands. Tourism, which is usually seen as the lifeblood and money-maker of the Canaries especially in the south of Tenerife, has become an increasingly hot topic in recent months as residents are warning that the hotspots are 'facing collapse'.
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