Barcelona
protesters spray visitors with water: Why has Europe fallen out of love with
tourism?
By Rebecca
Ann Hughes
Published on
08/07/2024 - 17:00 GMT+2•Updated 17:00
Overtourism
is putting pressure on health services, waste management, water supplies and
housing at the expense of residents.
Thousands of
Barcelona residents have taken to the streets to protest overtourism.
Around 3,000
people from over 140 organisations took to the streets of the Spanish city on
Saturday afternoon, spraying tourists with water and shouting "tourists go
home". Hotel and restaurant entrances were symbolically closed off.
They are
calling for action before a summer season that experts say will set new records
in the city and the wider region of Catalonia. Barcelona is Spain's most
visited city receiving 12 million people a year, many of whom arrive via cruise
ship.
Rising
visitor numbers are putting pressure on health services, waste management,
water supplies and housing at the expense of residents. Increased construction
of hotel and housing developments is endangering historic sites, biodiversity
and natural resources.
The city
council has recently voted in favour of increasing its tourism tax up to €4 per
person from October.
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is collapsing’: Ibiza is the latest Spanish hotspot to fight back against
overtourism
This
European country is launching the world’s longest circular hiking trail to
combat overtourism
Recently,
frustrations have boiled over in several other European honeypot destinations
compelling local authorities to address and reassess the relationship between
tourists and residents.
From
outspoken graffiti to hunger strikes, here’s how destinations suffering from
overtourism are pushing back.
Spain’s
tourist hotspots struggle to manage housing crisis
One of the
most pressing impacts of overtourism in Spain now is the lack of housing and
soaring rent prices for residents.
Málaga
locals expressed their frustration earlier this year by plastering the centre
of the Spanish city with stickers on walls and doors, telling visitors what
residents think of them.
They range
from the fairly mild “this used to be my home” (antes esta era mi casa) and
“this used to be the city centre” (antes esto era el centro) all the way to “go
f*cking home” (a tu puta casa), “stinking of tourist” (apestando a turista).
The city on
the Costa del Sol has long been a popular destination for foreign visitors,
thanks to its sunny climate and relatively low cost of living. But with digital
nomads now also piling in, the housing situation has become critical.
The ‘sticker
initiative’ was started by bar owner Dani Drunko. Speaking to a local newspaper
Diario Sur, Drunko explained that he began the campaign after he was “kicked
out” of the home he’d lived in for a decade.
He claimed
that the landlord refused to negotiate the rent or even sell him the property
because he wanted to turn it into a short-term rental for tourists.
People march
during a mass demonstration against tourism which affects the local population
with inaccessible housing among other things in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
It is a
story echoed throughout the country, where landlords have evicted long-term
residents in favour of holidaymakers or pushed rents up so only high-earning
digital nomads can afford them. Protests have taken place this year across the
country from Ibiza to Malaga and Menorca.
The Canary
Islands are experiencing a similarly drastic situation.
Activists
say the over 10 million foreign visitors that holiday on the archipelago each
year are ruining life there. Locals are reportedly sleeping in cars and caves
due to soaring house prices.
One local
organisation said the islands are “collapsing socially and environmentally”
under the pressure from mass tourism.
A report
from Ecologists in Action warned that almost 34 per cent of the local
population - nearly 800,000 people - is at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
Residents go
on hunger strike over hotel development in the Canary Islands
Constructing
accommodation and services for the floods of holidaymakers to the Canaries is
also putting pressure on land use, waste management, water supplies and
biodiversity.
An activist
group on the Canary Island of Tenerife went on hunger strike over the
construction of two new hotels in April this year. They called it off after 20
days after officials showed 'zero interest' in their plight, the strikers said.
Authorities
had halted work on Hotel La Tejita and Cuna del Alma in Tenerife’s Puertito de
Adeje over environmental breaches but construction has recently resumed.
Overrun
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‘Go
f*cking home’: The European cities where locals are fighting back against
overtourism
Canarias Se
Agota (Canaries Sold Out) and Canarias se exhausta (The Canary Islands are
exhausted) helped organise demonstrations on 20 April in Tenerife, Gran
Canaria, Lanzarote and La Palma under the tagline ‘The Canaries have a limit’.
Tens of
thousands of residents came out to protest against mass tourism with signs
reading "People live here" and "We don't want to see our island
die".
Demonstrators
in Tenerife said they want the island to impose a limit on tourist arrivals.
"The
authorities must immediately stop this corrupt and destructive model that
depletes the resources and makes the economy more precarious," Antonio
Bullon, one of the protest leaders, told Reuters.
“The Canary
Islands have limits and people's patience too.”
Residents
have also resorted to putting up fake ‘closed to overcrowding’ posters and
stickers in an attempt to deter tourists in popular locations.
Venice
residents protest new entry fee
Venice is
another destination that has long grappled with unsustainable tourist numbers.
Again, the
most damaging effect now is the ever-increasing spread of short-term rentals -
as of last year, there are more tourist beds in the city than residents.
Locals are
facing a shrinking pool of properties to rent and extortionate rates.
“Every day,
people with very serious housing problems arrive at our desks: homeless people
(often with a job), disabled people who live on high floors without a lift,
people who live in damp and dilapidated houses, even declared unhygienic by the
state health system,” says Susanna Polloni from the Venice-based Solidarity
Network for Housing.
Venice
council has earmarked €27.7 million to repair and redevelop around 500
apartments in the historic centre, islands and mainland.
But there
are reportedly around 2,000 properties currently lying empty which Polloni says
could have been renovated a long time ago if funds had been better managed.
Activists
protested the introduction of the new €5 day-tripper entry fee on 25 April.
They said they want a different vision for the city which doesn’t put tourism
front and centre.
Over the
first 11 days that the visitor fee was in force - from 25 April to 5 May - the
city sold 195,000 tickets raising a total of €977,430. The sum greatly exceeded
expectations but is still less than the cost of setting up the online booking
system, informational campaigns and ticket checks - €3 million according to
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Members of
Venice’s Social Assembly for Housing and the Solidarity Network for Housing
have criticised council spending on the day-tripper fee.
“It is a
further advance towards the Venice that we do not want, the "museum
city", a step towards the normalization of this image, which is all the
more dangerous the more it enters the international imagination,” says Polloni.
“This
measure will help make it even more concretely real. A city empty of residents
and soul, given that the tourist monoculture is now devouring everything needed
for the life of a city: housing, protected employment, public services,
neighbourhood shops and crafts.”
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After the
trial period, the fee may be increased to €10 per day. There are also fines of
up to €300 for those who try to visit without a ticket.
The
demonstrators are just some of many Venetians who consider the housing plan
drawn up by the municipality to be insufficient.
The council
has said proceeds from the entry fees will go towards services that help the
residents of the city including maintenance, cleaning and reducing living
costs.
But critics
say it will do little to moderate the influx of tourism which in turn is one of
the main factors in the depopulation of Venice.
Austrian
village builds fence to block tourist selfies
Last year
also saw residents go to extreme measures to make their feelings heard.
The stunning
backdrop to the town of Hallstatt in the Austrian mountains is thought to have
inspired Disney’s Frozen.
Because of
this, over a million tourists descend on the destination every year with many
wanting to snap a selfie with the famous view.
Last year,
residents of the town became so frustrated they put up a fence to stop visitors
from taking pictures.
It was later
removed due to backlash on social media but it was hoped that the barrier would
prevent people from gathering in one popular selfie spot and disrupting
residents by making too much noise.
Activists
put up fake warning signs on Mallorca beaches
Last summer,
activists put up false warning signs at beaches across Mallorca to keep
English-speaking tourists away.
Some posters
warned of “dangerous jellyfish”, “falling rocks” or seawater polluted with
sewage.
Others said
the beach was closed with a ‘no swimming’ symbol below or warned that it takes
hours to walk there despite the ocean being less than 100 metres away.
A few small
lines of text in Catalan underneath, however, revealed to locals that these
warnings weren’t real.
They
explained that “the problem isn’t a rockfall, it’s mass tourism” or that the
“beach is open, except for foreigners and jellyfish.”
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