Furious locals who orchestrated mass anti-tourism protests across the Canary Islands earlier this year have issued a warning to British travellers as they vowed to target 'main holidaymaker areas' over the summer break. 

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tenerife on April 20, with roughly 200,000 protesters thought to have taken part in mass demonstrations across the island archipelago.

The protests, organised by various groups including 'Friends of Nature of Tenerife (ATAN)' aimed to discourage foreign holidaymakers while also compelling councils to introduce new legislation aimed at protecting the islands from the effects of an ever-expanding tourism industry. 

But the groups claim their demands have fallen on deaf ears and as a result are gearing up for another explosive demonstration. 

'We have decided to take to the streets again. This time we will take to the streets in the very centre of this development model: in the main tourist areas,' a statement from ATAN read. 

'We ask people to continue fighting from every corner of the islands against this unjust model that is destroying our lives and our territory.'

The statement published by ATAN called on residents of all the Canary Islands to unite once again to protest what they see as negligence by councils that have allowed large tour operators to buy up real estate, drive up prices and make life unbearable for locals. 

'On April 20, the largest demonstration in the history of the Canary Islands took place. This would make us think that a few months later we would have at least seen a change of direction by the governments at the head of the archipelago's institutions, but nothing has changed. 

'Far from responding to the more than 200,000 people who took to the streets demanding a change in the economic and social model for the islands, the island governments have not hesitated to systematically reject their demands. 

'They continue to see our natural spaces as places to exploit for tourism,' it read.

'To achieve the changes we are asking for, governments need to focus on the people, on nature and on the heritage of these islands, and not on continuing to do business at the expense of the territory, taking away people's quality of life.

'To the Government of the Canary Islands, the island councils, the town halls, the tourist lobby... we warn you of one thing. You will not silence us and our protests will only increase if immediate measures are not taken to stop the profound environmental and social deterioration that the Canary Islands are experiencing.

The group concluded: 'Get to work for the common good, and understand that you cannot continue doing so unilaterally and turning your back on the people: we will be present in the design of the new model that these islands deserve, collectively and with real participation. There is no other way.'

The campaigners claim that the huge influx of tourists to the island is causing major environmental damage, driving down wages and squeezing locals out of cheap affordable housing, forcing dozens to live in tents and cars instead.

One female protestor at the march in April held up a sign which read: 'Fourteen million tourists a year but 36 per cent of Canarians at risk of poverty.'  

Female protestors previously revealed that they had been harassed and threatened by tourists and no longer 'feel safe' in their homeland as the streets were flooded with foreigners revelling in drunken debauchery. 

'I wouldn't go to the south of the island alone, it is not safe for young women,' one protestor told the Express. 

Another activist Celia Quintero, 15, claimed they are pressured in school to accomodate British tourists.

Speaking to the Daily Express, she said that you had to learn English at school with lessons like maths even being taught in the language because 'you have to know English because we rely on tourism and to stay safe'.

Celia also revealed that she was recently harassed by a group of German tourists to the extent that she was forced to hide in a bar just to get away from them. 

An estimated 50,000 citizens in Tenerife took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago in April to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism and demand their politicians take action.

Demonstrators packed into Weyler Square in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz, the start point for a march on the Brit-popular holiday island, just before midday on April 20 with banners including one that said: 'You enjoy, we suffer' in English.

Others said: 'Where is the money from tourism?' and 'Tourist moratorium now.'

They waved Canary Islands' flags and blew vuvuzelas to make a deafening noise.

Protests also got underway at the same time in the other islands in the archipelago, including Lanzarote and Gran Canaria alongside support demonstrations in Spanish mainland in cities like Malaga and Madrid - as well as London and Berlin.

The Canary Islands protests were organised under the slogan 'Canarias Tiene Un Limite' which in English translates as 'The Canary Islands have a limit.'

Prior to those demonstratios, six men and women embarked on a hunger strike for ten days leading up to April 20. 

Speaking ahead of the demonstrations, a spokesman for protest platform Canarias Se Agota with which the hunger strikers are affiliated, said: 'Today, April 20, marks the 10th day of the hunger strike.

'Today we cannot forget these people who are putting their lives at risk for our Earth.

'Their determination inspires, their bravery moves us, their sacrifice reminds us that this struggle is everyone's and for everyone.

'We are writing a new chapter in the history of our islands, a chapter marked by the unwavering perseverance of those who bravely defend our home.

'Today the Canary Islands will scream and fight, and tomorrow it will continue to do so.'

But campaigners have been quick to distance themselves from anti-tourist graffiti which appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month.

Protest groups including Canarias Se Agota, which in English translates literally as 'The Canary Islands are Exhausted', want the authorities to paralyse two tourist projects including one which involves the construction of a five-star hotel by one of Tenerife's last virgin beaches.

They are also seeking a commitment from regional politicians to change the tourist model and protect islands like Tenerife 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.

Other demands include the protection of natural spaces, a tourist tax and better working conditions for hotel cleaners, who joined today's protest in Santa Cruz as they insisted to local press: 'We are not slaves.'

In the Gran Canaria capital Las Palmas, marchers carried banners in Spanish which said: 'It's not phobia, it's love for my land.'

One of the other banners exhibited by protestors said: 'The Canary Islands government is an estate agency'

Another said: 'With so much Airbnb where are we going to live.'

More than 1,000 people were said to have joined the protest march in Fuerteventura by just after midday local time.

Protestor Xiomara Cruz, who took part in the march in Gran Canaria, said ahead of its start: 'They made us believe that in the Canary Islands we live from tourism and what we want is the right of islanders to live in their land.'

She called the protests a 'rallying cry from a population tired of seeing how our islands are being destroyed.'

Paula Rincon told local press: 'It pains me that Canarians cannot afford to live in their own neighbourhoods.'

Insisting the current tourism model led to 'more people paying lower prices and badly-built hotels that destroyed beaches and protected areas' she added: 'I don't know why we aspire to so many numbers when this doesn't filter down to the rest of the population.

'The current system doesn't benefit us, it impoverishes us.'

The protests in the Canary Islands are mostly taking place away from the main tourist areas, which in Tenerife and Gran Canaria are in the south of the islands.

Some British holidaymakers showed their support for the issues raised by the islanders but others accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.

The Canary Islands' tourism minister Jessica de Leon urged British holidaymakers not to cancel their holidays amid the demonstrations.

Canary Islands regional president Fernando Clavijo initially admitted he was worried tourists might be put off coming to the area, before softening his message and describing the April 20 protests as an opportunity to 'revise' the current tourism model.

Jorge Marichal, president of regional hotel association ASHOTEL, has claimed tourists were ringing establishments to ask whether it was safe to come.

He has also 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.

Messages in English left on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife at the start of the month 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*** off, we pay your wages.'

Protest platform Canarias Se Agota insisted it had nothing to do with the graffiti that has appeared in parts of Tenerife and has accused regional politicians of blaming them of tourism-phobia as part of a 'dirty tricks' campaign.

Tech worker Ivan Cerdeña Molina, 36, helped organise the protest as part of his role at local conservation group ATAN (Asociación Tinerfeña de Amigos de la Naturaleza).

He told MailOnline previously: 'It's a crisis, we have to change things urgently, people are living in their cars and even in caves, and locals can't eat, drink or live well.

'Airbnb and Booking.com are like a cancer that is consuming the island bit by bit.

'The benefits of the industry are not trickling down to everyday people, whose salaries have not increased in years, the quality of life here is collapsing.'

Ivan was born and raised in El Medano, a once quiet town about a 20 minute-drive east of the most popular tourist resort of Los Cristianos.

Meanwhile, the tourism minister of the Canary Islands urged British travellers to spend their holidays in the archipelago despite mounting protests against overtourism.

Jessica de León insisted that in spite of reports of booking cancellations and fears of holiday disruptions, 'it is still safe to visit the Canary Islands, and we are delighted to welcome you'.

She told The Telegraph that while she understood the protestors' cause for concern, it was 'unfair to blame tourism' on the issues facing the Canary Islands.