Holidaymakers told to 're-think' plans as Canary Islands named on 2026 'no' travel list

A travel guide company has suggested that people thinking about taking a holiday in the Canary Islands ought to 're-think' their plans and look elsewhere.

Given the combination of sun, sea and sangria, there's a reason why they are such a popular tourist hotspot, but like many places known as a prime travel destination, many of the people who actually call it home are getting sick of the tourists.

Your humble writer can count himself among the many millions of people who visited the islands this year for a holiday and found it to be a wonderful place to visit, though the airport was a bit s**t.

However, travel guide company Fodor put it on their 'no' travel list, explaining that while tourism accounts for about a third of the Canary Islands GDP and about 40 percent of the people there owe their jobs to tourism, the islanders are starting to feel like they've had enough.

In recent years, plenty of Spanish tourism hotspots have seen major protests against the industry that dominates their homes, with tourists urged to 'go home' and warned that some of the places they're visiting are not built to handle the current quantities of people arriving.

There have been protests against too much tourism in the Canary Islands (Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images)

While these areas may be economically dependent upon tourism, the tourism industry has also posed them problems as local properties are bought up to be rented out to tourists, and the massive demand has pushed rent and property prices far beyond the ability of locals to afford them.

People who feel they're being priced out of their own part of the world by tourists have started protesting, with thousands marching under banners declaring 'The Canaries have a limit'.

Fodor warned that tourism had become 'both a lifeline and a burden', and that since most of the money was being hoovered up by big hotels and investment groups the locals weren't seeing much in the way of benefits.

As such, they've stuck the Canary Islands on their 'no' travel list for 2026.

Also on the list are Antarctica, Glacier National Park in Montana, Italy's Isola Sacra, the Jungfrau Region of Switzerland, Mexico City, Mombassa in Kenya, and the Parisian hotspot of Montmartre.

Many of the world's most popular tourist hotspots think their spots have become a bit too hot (Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Some of these places are on the list because the locals are actually starting to attack tourists, such is their animosity for the negative effects the industry has had, while others, like Antarctica, are there because Fodor says it 'doesn't need tourists at all' and the local environment can't take it.

Conversely, they've also come up with a list of places that are desperate for more tourists in the hopes you might consider recalibrating your holiday plans.

The island of Madagascar, Pakistan's Ghizer District, the Pacific island of Palau, Uganda, Mongolia, Japan's city of Tsuruoka, Nepal's Mount Kanchenjunga Circuit, Suriname, Bhutan and even Iraq are named as places you might consider visiting.

On the other hand, some of these places have Foreign Office warnings against all but essential travel, so just because it gets named on one of those lists doesn't mean you ought to pack your bags right away.

Just be careful when booking your 2026 summer holiday.