anti tourism protests in barcelona

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Why Barcelona locals really hate tourists

A spaniard gives an insight into why anti-tourist sentiment is rife in the city, article bookmarked.

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Imagine you’re walking down the street in the city you’ve been dying to visit for months, or even years. You’re in a good mood because you’re on holiday; the sun seems to shine brighter than usual and life feels good. But then you turn a corner and stumble upon a piece of graffiti that reads: “Tourist you are the terrorist".

You ignore it, attributing it to some angry guy with a sad life who probably doesn’t get out all that much. But a few metres ahead you see another troubling line: “All tourists are bastards”.

A few steps further on: “Stop destroying our lives!” And after that: “Why call it tourist season if we can’t shoot them?”

Now it seems more than just an isolated incident. You keep walking, but the spring is gone from your step. Perhaps the sun isn’t that bright today, after all.

As a Spanish citizen who has lived in Barcelona for six years, I’ve seen the huge increase in tourism and witnessed the growing counter-movement driven by locals, which is starting to get referred to as “tourism-phobia”. I first saw this kind of graffiti about three years ago, as I waited for a traffic light to turn green on my way to work. Right in front of me, sprayed on a pedestrian crossing next to Sagrada Família, I read the words “Tourist go home”. This was just the tip of the iceberg – angry graffiti and passive-aggressive messages started appearing all over the city. Recently, anti-tourist protests have hit headlines . But why all the hate? Isn’t this backlash way over the top?

On one hand, the answer is yes, it is. But on the other hand, it’s a reaction that has been triggered by the swelling numbers of tourists, creating massive overcrowding – the city has been stretched to breaking point. Barcelona is the twentieth most visited city in the world, and it keeps breaking its record number of visitors each year, going from 27 million tourists in 2012 to more than 34 million in 2016. That’s an increase of over 25 per cent in four years.

Low-cost flights, as well as the popularisation of home-sharing platforms such as AirBnB and Homeaway, which tend to be cheaper and more convenient than hotels, have contributed to the growing number of sightseers. In turn, investors are speculating and buying entire buildings – some where families have lived for decades – to cater for this growing industry. Landlords are seeing an opportunity to gain up to four times as much as they would for renting to long-term local tenants, and 40 per cent of Barcelona’s tourist apartments are illegal. This is leading to a shortage of housing for those who live and work here and driving up rents, which increased by 16.5 per cent in 2016.

Now imagine you live in Barcelona – and life is becoming more expensive all the time. On Friday morning, like every week for years, you go to buy some groceries at the typical market in your neighbourhood, La Boqueria. But lately it is so crowded with tourists that it’s hard to navigate the aisles; a trip that used to take you 20 minutes now takes over an hour. At the meat stand you run into your neighbour from the building opposite, an old lady who’s lived there for decades. She looks upset: it turns out the owners are selling the whole building to an investor who is planning to turn the historic building into luxury apartments for wealthy foreigners, and the tenants have six months to leave. Where will this lady go? She was paying “old rental” prices and she can’t afford the new exorbitant market rates.

The next day, Saturday, you decide to have lunch at the old place around the corner, which is one of the few left where a typical tapa is served. But there’s a long queue of people waiting outside, most of them tourists. Since you aren’t willing to wait half an hour to eat uncomfortably in a crowded restaurant, you head home and eat whatever’s in the fridge. In the evening you head to a pub you love with some friends, only to find it’s gone: it’s been replaced by a touristy restaurant. On your way home, you hear drunken youngsters speaking a foreign language as you approach your street. As you turn the corner, you realise it’s the same group of people that rented the flat above yours, which you know doesn’t have a licence for holiday rentals, and they’ve been partying for days, disrupting your sleep. Now one of them, a guy, is facing the wall beside the doorstep across the street. He’s peeing. And it’s useless to tell them off – you’ve tried before and they just laugh at you. Your neighbours will have to endure the smell of dry pee for days.

In the end you decide you can’t take it anymore and start looking for a studio to rent in another area which isn’t as crowded. But after months of searching, you give up: the few ones on offer are either too expensive, too far from your office, too small for the price or too dodgy. You feel so much a stranger in your own city that it makes you angry. And one day you feel the need to express it somehow: writing angry graffiti fuelled by your sense of desperate isolation.

These events are a typical part of life as a Barcelona citizen, so it’s no wonder locals perceive tourism as their biggest problem according to a recent survey by the government – even above unemployment and working conditions. Over half of the population thinks the city is at full capacity and that no efforts should be made to attract more tourists.

However, attacking visitors isn’t the solution in a city where tourism represents the main source of income. Actually, 86.7 per cent of locals see tourism as a positive thing, but many think it needs to be further regulated. As does the local government, which has acknowledged the situation and taken measures to try and contain it. Besides the tourist tax applied to accommodation for spending the night in the city, the licensing and building of new accommodation (hotels, hostels and apartments) has been paralysed since 2015, and earlier this year a special urbanism plan for tourism (PEUAT) was passed, whereby the licensing of tourist accommodation is restricted depending on the area. The aim is to distribute tourists more evenly throughout the city and decongest the most central and affected districts.

Hopefully these measures will achieve their goal and help ease tensions, but only time will tell whether tourism and local life can reach a balance. Meanwhile, you shouldn’t be afraid to visit: most locals are aware that this is an administration problem and will treat you in a friendly way. If you’re visiting the city, being respectful, trying to interfere as little as possible with locals’ lives and choosing an accommodation option that doesn’t have a direct negative impact – or at least that isn’t illegal – can go a long way.

Because Barcelona does not hate you – just your pee.

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‘We don’t want to be Venice’: Barcelona battles an influx of tourists

City’s left-wing activist mayor ada colau is seeking re-election in a tight race while presiding over a city with a host of problems.

A souvenir kiosk on Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain. The city is facing a bitter race for mayor in Spain's local elections. File photograph: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg

For supporters of the mayor of Barcelona, a T-shirt speaks volumes. “It’s all Ada Colau’s fault,” reads the slogan printed on the garment, with Yoko Ono’s name crossed out.

It’s a joke, of course, worn by the left-wing supporters of Colau (49), the mayor of Barcelona since 2015, during the campaign ahead of this Sunday’s local election. It plays on the idea that she has become not just a scapegoat for the Catalan capital’s challenges – which include housing problems, mass tourism and petty crime – but a convenient hate figure for certain residents.

Begona Gómez Urzaiz noted in the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia that there was a “visceral, vitriolic” rejection of the mayor which “is less to do with her tenure and her political ideas than with her origins, her gender, the way she talks and even her hair.”

Nonetheless, in a tight race, Colau could still secure a third term. She has said that the T-shirt “refers to the campaign, including… fake news, that certain economic powers are waging against the city’s government”.

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What nobody can dispute is that we didn’t come here just to bide our time but to implement a different urban model —   Ada Colau

She added: “There may be people who disagree with our ideas for the city and that’s legitimate and normal. What nobody can dispute is that we didn’t come here just to bide our time but to implement a different urban model, more fair, more democratic and feminist.”

Barcelona mayor Ada Colau. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP

When she first took office, Colau was known as an activist rather than a politician. As Spain had reeled from the euro-zone crisis, many younger people took to the streets to protest against austerity, corruption and a shortage of affordable housing. It was in response to the lack of affordable housing that Colau became the most prominent figure in the country’s anti-eviction movement, which would demonstrate against, or even block, foreclosures of properties by banks when owners were no longer able to pay their mortgage.

That activism gave Colau a platform from which to launch her successful bid to become mayor of Barcelona in 2015 as part of a wave of victories for Spain’s new left. Her party, Barcelona En Comú, has governed the city in a coalition that includes Podemos.

She took office on a social justice platform that promised sweeping change for the city. However, the principal problems Barcelona faces now are similar to those it confronted eight years ago. As the summer approaches, the mass influx of tourism is arguably the most visible, although her administration insists that the situation has improved.

Clamping down

“Something we have managed to do is to stop the city’s decline [in this area],” Janet Sánchez, councillor for environment, urban space, mobility and infrastructure in city hall, told The Irish Times. “We don’t want to be Venice.”

Tourists wait for taxis after disembarking from a cruise ship at Barcelona's harbour. Some 400,000 cruise passengers who disembark in the port every month in high season. Photograph: Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images

Measures taken have included closing down 6,000 unlicensed tourist flats and limiting the availability of hotel rooms in certain areas of the city. If re-elected, Colau’s team plan to go further, aiming to halve the 400,000 cruise passengers who disembark in Barcelona’s port every month in high season, while clamping down further on tourist flats and souvenir shops.

Crime has proved equally difficult to manage. Barcelona continues to have a significantly higher crime rate than other large Spanish cities. Meanwhile, a fierce debate over squatting has dragged attention away from Colau’s substantial social housing initiatives.

The debate over Catalan independence has barely registered in this campaign, a fortunate development for Colau, whose support for self-determination but not secession made her a target for both separatists and unionists in the past

“The city in Colau’s mind is for pedestrians, it’s green, accessible and pro-cycling, inclusive, feminist, safe and multicultural, participative but not polemical, educated but not elitist, open but Catalan,” noted the writer Juan Soto Ivars. Describing her tenure as “a costly yet valuable experiment”, he said: “She hasn’t destroyed Barcelona, nor has she left it any worse than she found it.”#

On Sunday, regional and municipal elections will be held across Spain and the results in areas such as Madrid and Valencia will be keenly watched because of their potential significance for national politics.

However, Barcelona has its own political microclimate, with Catalan nationalist parties playing a key role. The debate over Catalan independence has barely registered in this campaign, a fortunate development for Colau, whose support for self-determination but not secession made her a target for both separatists and unionists in the past.

With the populist right rampant in Madrid, Barcelona remains a bastion of the ideals of the new left that emerged nearly a decade ago but whose grip on power has been slipping in recent years.

Return to activism

Polls show Colau’s Barcelona en Comú in a virtual three-way tie with the Socialists, with whom she has governed until now, and the pro-independence conservatives of Together for Catalonia (JxCat). To remain office, the mayor would again need the support of at least one other party.

[  Spanish parliament probes deep-state attempts to smear Catalan separatists  ]

If re-elected, Colau has said she will leave politics after another term to return to activism.

“When you’re involved in activism, you’re with people who think like you and you don’t need to associate with those who don’t,” she said. “When you’re mayor you have to associate with everyone.”

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Anti-tourism attacks in Spain: who is behind them and what do they want?

Senior Lecturer in Spanish, Manchester Metropolitan University

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Karl McLaughlin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Already plagued by long security queues at airports, holidaymakers visiting top destinations in Spain face more vacation woes once they arrive. Anti-tourism activists have been targeting Barcelona, Majorca, Valencia and San Sebastián with protests – some of them involving violence. The goal seems to be to rail against the negative impact of mass tourism on local life and living standards.

In Barcelona, which welcomes some 32m visitors annually, a sightseeing bus was attacked at the end of July as it arrived at FC Barcelona’s iconic Camp Nou stadium. Masked assailants slashed the tyres and daubed graffiti on the sides of the bus.

They sprayed the message (in Catalan) “tourism kills neighbourhoods” in orange paint on the windscreen. Passengers, including several Britons , said they initially thought they were under attack from terrorists. Elsewhere in the city, bicycles rented out to tourists have been vandalised and rendered unusable.

Days earlier, a group of around 20 anti-tourism activists brandishing flares and placards burst into the popular Mar de Nudos restaurant in Palma, the capital of holiday island Majorca. They showered the mainly foreign customers with confetti, before staging a smoke-filled protest next to luxury yachts moored in the marina.

In a video posted later on social media, the campaigners urged others to join them in bringing chaos to bear on the “mass tourism that is destroying Majorca and condemns the working classes to a life of misery”. Following the incident, graffiti has appeared speaking out against tourist apartments and the “invasion” by café terraces on Palma’s popular Calle Blanquerna.

In Valencia, protesters occupied a rental apartment used for city breaks and unfurled a banner on the balcony decrying the tourism-driven gentrification of the area and demanding that housing be used to meet the needs of locals.

Previously, an estimated 100 locals dressed up as tourists and paraded through the streets, satirising visitor behaviour (including urinating against walls) as a protest against “ touristification ”.

Meanwhile, in San Sebastián, where a population of 180,000 greeted two million tourists in 2016, “tourists go home” slogans by pro-Basque, left-wing groups have appeared on city walls. There are fears that the actions will escalate further, with a street demonstration planned for the height of the mid-August Semana Grande fiestas. The prospect of trouble is, unsurprisingly, a major worry for the city and the Basque Country generally, which have enjoyed an impressive upturn in tourism since separatist group ETA ended its campaign of violence in 2011.

Unsustainable numbers?

Tourism industry leaders are at pains to stress that the protests should be taken with a pinch of salt. They claim the attacks are clearly part of the pro-independence agendas of a small number of radical and anarchist movements. That’s why the incidents have been concentrated in Catalonia, the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands.

However, the high profile actions are sparking fresh debate on the Spanish tourism model and its arguably unsustainable visitor numbers. This is particularly pressing in a year designated International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the UN.

Spain is the world’s third most visited country. Last year, it posted a new record of 75m tourists, nearly 17m of them British. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council , the total contribution of travel and tourism to Spain’s economy in 2016 was €158.9 billion, or 14.2% of GDP. That figure is expected to rise by nearly 4% by the end of 2017. The sector accounts for an estimated 2.7m direct and indirect jobs in the country.

However, the picture isn’t entirely positive. Luxury hotels have been built in Lanzarote, for example, without planning permission . They did come with juicy backhanders for mayors, though. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, developers bought up cheap tracts of land on the eve of the announcement of a major beach development after colluding with local officials. The land was promptly sold off to the council for the flagship regeneration project at a massively inflated price. Culprits on both sides of that particular scandal were sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison .

Fertile ground

Fuelled in part by the understandably angry reaction to such corruption, there is little doubt that the message of anti mass-tourism campaigners is falling on fertile ground, despite widespread criticism of their aggressive methods. There is increasing sympathy for local residents and businesses who are being squeezed out of destinations by spiralling rents and property prices, not to mention for the young people denied a decent and stable living due to tourism’s low-wage and long-hour employment.

Far from being simply another headline-grabbing fad cooked up by anti-establishment groups, the incidents may speak to a much wider and more receptive audience. A survey commissioned by Barcelona council found that locals consider tourism to be the city’s second most pressing problem , after unemployment. It is a view shared by Barcelona’s leftist mayor, Ana Colau, who was criticised last week for not denouncing the sightseeing bus attack immediately.

A year before taking up office, Colau took to the UK media to bemoan the evils of a tourism-saturated city and reveal her fears that Barcelona could become the next Venice. Even if not enjoying the same explicit political support elsewhere, the anti-tourism mobilisations of recent weeks may have touched a nerve and could spread to other parts of the country.

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‘Go home’: Too much tourism sparks backlash in Spain

MADRID - Anti-tourism movements are multiplying in Spain, the world’s second-most visited country, prompting the authorities to try and reconcile the interests of locals and the lucrative sector.

Rallying under the slogan “The Canaries have a limit”, a collective of groups on the archipelago off north-west Africa are planning a slew of protests on April 20.

The Canaries are known for volcanic landscapes and year-round sunshine, and attract millions of visitors from all over the world.

Groups there want the authorities to halt work on two new hotels on Tenerife, the largest and most developed of the archipelago’s seven islands.

They are also demanding that locals be given a greater say in the face of what they consider uncontrolled development which is harming the environment.

Several members of the collective Canaries Sold Out began an “indefinite” hunger strike last week to put pressure on the authorities. “Our islands are a treasure that must be defended,” the collective said.

The Canaries received 16 million visitors in 2023, more than seven times its population of around 2.2 million people.

This is an unsustainable level given the archipelago’s limited resources, Mr Victor Martin, a spokesman for the collective, told a recent press briefing, calling it a “suicidal growth model”.

‘Social revulsion’

Similar anti-tourism movements have sprung up elsewhere in Spain and are active on social media.

In the southern port of Malaga on the Costa del Sol, a centre of Spain’s decades-old “soy y playa” or “sun and beach” tourism model, stickers with unfriendly slogans such as “This used to be my home” and “Go home” have appeared on the walls and doors of tourist lodgings.

In Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, activists have put up fake signs at the entrances to some popular beaches warning in English of the risk of “falling rocks” or “dangerous jellyfish”.

Locals complain a rise in accommodation listings on short-term rental platforms like Airbnb have worsened a housing shortage and caused rents to soar, especially in town centres. The influx of tourists also adds to noise and environmental pollution and taxes resources such as water, they add.

In the north-eastern region of Catalonia, which declared a drought emergency in February, anger is growing over the pressure exerted on depleted water reserves by hotels on the Costa Brava.

“Our concern is to continue to grow tourism in Spain so that it is sustainable and does not generate social revulsion,” vice-president Jose Luis Zoreda of tourism association Exceltur said on April 16 when asked about the protests.

The group said it expects Spain’s tourism sector will post record revenues of €202.65 billion (S$290 billion) in 2024.

Loudspeaker ban

Before Covid-19 brought the global travel industry to its knees in 2020, protest movements against overtourism had already emerged in Spain, especially in Barcelona.

Now that pandemic travel curbs have been lifted, tourism is back with a vengeance – Spain welcomed a record 85.1 million foreign visitors in 2023.

In response, several cities have acted to try to limit overcrowding.

The northern seaside city of San Sebastian in March 2023 limited the size of tourist groups in the centre to 25 people and banned the use of loudspeakers on guided tours.

The southern city of Seville is mulling over charging non-residents a fee to enter its landmark Plaza de Espana, while Barcelona removed from Google Maps a bus route popular with tourists to try to make more room for locals.

Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez said over the weekend that “action needs to be taken to limit the number of tourist flats” but also stressed that the government is “aware of the importance of the tourist sector”, which accounts for 12.8 per cent of Spain’s economic activity. AFP

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'Go home': Overtourism sparks backlash in Spain

Madrid (AFP) – Anti-tourism movements are multiplying in Spain, the world's second most visited country, prompting authorities to try and reconcile the interests of locals and the lucrative sector.

Issued on: 16/04/2024 - 11:45 Modified: 16/04/2024 - 16:46

Rallying under the slogan "The Canaries have a limit", a collective of groups on the archipelago off northwest Africa are planning a slew of protests on Saturday.

The Canaries are known for volcanic landscapes and year-round sunshine and attracts millions of visitors from all over the world.

Groups there want authorities to halt work on two new hotels on Tenerife, the largest and most developed of the archipelago's seven islands.

They are also demanding that locals be given a greater say in the face of what they consider uncontrolled development which is harming the environment.

Several members of the collective "Canaries Sold Out" also began an "indefinite" hunger strike last week to put pressure of the authorities.

"Our islands are a treasure that must be defended," the collective said.

The Canaries received 16 million visitors last year, more than seven times its population of around 2.2 million people.

This is an unsustainable level given the archipelago's limited resources, Victor Martin, a spokesman for the collective told a recent press briefing, calling it a "suicidal growth model".

'Social revulsion'

Similar anti-tourism movements have sprung up elsewhere in Spain and are active on social media.

In the southern port of Malaga on the Costa del Sol, a centre of Spain's decades-old "soy y playa" or "sun and beach" tourism model, stickers with unfriendly slogans such as "This used to be my home" and "Go home" have appeared on the walls and doors of tourist accommodations.

In Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, activists have put up fake signs at the entrances to some popular beaches warning in English of the risk of "falling rocks" or "dangerous jellyfish".

Locals complain a rise in accommodation listings on short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb have worsened a housing shortage and caused rents to soar, especially in town centres.

The influx of tourists also adds to noise and environmental pollution and taxes resources such as water, they add.

In the northeastern region of Catalonia, which declared a drought emergency in February, anger is growing over the pressure exerted on depleted water reserves by hotels on the Costa Brava.

"Our concern is to continue to grow tourism in Spain so that it is sustainable and does not generate social revulsion," the vice president of tourism association Exceltur, Jose Luis Zoreda, told a news conference on Tuesday when asked about the protest movements.

The group said it expects Spain's tourism sector will post record revenues of 202.65 billion euros ($215.4 billion) this year.

Loudspeaker ban

Before the Covid-19 pandemic brought the global travel industry to its knees in 2020, protest movements against overtourism had already emerged in Spain, especially in Barcelona.

Now that pandemic travel restrictions have been lifted, tourism is back with a vengeance -- Spain welcomed a record 85.1 million foreign visitors last year.

In response, several cities have taken measures to try to limit overcrowding.

The northern seaside city of San Sebastian last month limited the size of tourist groups in the centre to 25 people and banned the use of loudspeakers during guided tours.

The southern city of Seville is mulling charging non-residents a fee to enter its landmark Plaza de Espana while Barcelona had removed a bus route popular with tourists from Google Maps to try to make more room for locals.

Housing Minister Isabel Rodriguez said over the weekend that "action needs to be taken to limit the number of tourist flats" but stressed the government is "aware of the importance of the tourist sector", which accounts for 12.8 percent of Spain's economic activity.

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Can Barcelona Fix Its Love-Hate Relationship With Tourists After the Pandemic?

B efore last year, Martí Cusó didn’t like to linger in the streets of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, the neighborhood where he has lived all his life. It was impossible to sit on a bench or play with his kids outside without being engulfed by tourists . Shuffling behind tour guides, gazing upward at the architecture or pausing abruptly to buy souvenirs from street hawkers, the visitors were often a nuisance to locals navigating the streets. Some zoomed through the area’s narrow medieval passages on scooters and taxi bikes. Many crowded the bar terraces, which had gradually replaced the local amenities that residents once relied on. “Tourism had eaten up all of the public space and relegated us locals to a role of extras on a set,” says Cusó, 31, a teacher and member of the Gothic Quarter residents’ association.

Despite residents’ protests, the number of tourists flooding into Barcelona soared over the past two decades, with nearly 12 million visiting the city of 1.6 million in 2019. But when COVID-19 hit, forcing Spain to close its borders to tourists, locals reclaimed the city center. “We saw scenes we hadn’t seen in a long time. The squares that are normally full of terrazas and tourists were occupied by kids playing, or families, or people sunbathing,” Cusó says. “Now we’re scared we’re going to lose that again.”

E.U. leaders have agreed to allow vaccinated tourists to visit European countries this summer without quarantining. News of the plan prompted an immediate 47% surge in searches for flights to Europe, according to travel analytics firm Hopper. In Barcelona, where Americans make up the largest group of foreign visitors, the city hopes to welcome 1 million tourists this summer. On May 29, the Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí’s iconic cathedral , reopened to visitors.

Read more: How Europe Transformed Itself for Tourism, and Why It Backfired

Across Europe’s many tourism hot spots , authorities are walking a tightrope as the COVID-19 recovery gathers steam. The pandemic laid bare how a rush for tourism dollars has left downtowns dependent on the industry. Officials are desperate to revive the sector, which has suffered mass layoffs and normally contributes heavily to local economies across Europe. (In Barcelona, it makes up 15% of GDP.) At the same time, locals are pressuring city governments to use the disruption of COVID-19 to impose new rules on the industry. In March, Italy’s government said it would ban cruise ships from entering the center of Venice, while Amsterdam is pressing ahead with a plan to curb sex work in the city center and relocate its famous red-light district.

In Barcelona, officials have launched a strategy to transform post-pandemic tourism in a way that satisfies both residents and visitors. Under the progressive mayor Ada Colau, Barcelona in January announced a plan that would effectively ban homeowners from renting out individual rooms to tourists on platforms like Airbnb, which would make the city’s already tight controls on tourist accommodation some of the strictest in the world . In a bid to revive central areas and reduce tourism’s group, in April, the city announced a $21 million plan to buy empty commercial spaces and fill them with businesses catering to locals . A new app and crowd-monitoring system aims to divert tourists to avoid congested parts of town. “We’ve had a break from tourists for a year to think about how we want to deal with them,” says Xavier Marcé, Barcelona’s councillor for tourism and creative industries.

The city is also changing how it sells itself. On May 17, the tourism board launched an ad campaign, “Barcelona like never before,” touting cleaner, calmer streets. Running in English and Castilian Spanish, authorities say the ads target “high-quality” tourists who come to participate in the local lifestyle, and also encourage locals to visit areas and attractions normally overrun by tourists.

Locals are skeptical that the city’s plans can help them preserve their newfound ownership of the city. But Marcé insists Barcelona can improve for residents and welcome tourists back at the same time: “I can’t put up walls around the city. I can’t move the Sagrada Familia. But there’s a lot of things I can do.”

Rebalancing the relationship between locals and tourists

Barcelona has developed a love-hate relationship with tourists in the three decades since hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics, which kickstarted the industry’s rapid growth in the city. Almost all of the city’s major attractions are in the historic center, meaning that tourists were concentrated in a few neighborhoods. Its cruise port and proximity to seaside towns attracted hordes of day-trippers, who spent less money and flooded the city center. An influx of study-abroad students and “lifestyle migrants”—who come for a few months or years at time to work remotely—compounded the issue, says Claudio Milano, a professor in the social anthropology department of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. “The city has grown to be seen as a place of leisure.”

Rents climbed and public services, such as waste management, came under pressure. Limits on new hotel construction and short-term home rentals, and rule changes like a ban on tour groups using electric scooters, haven’t allayed residents concerns. Tourism became a lightning rod for anticapitalist and antiglobalization sentiments that had grown in Spain following the recession of 2008–2009, with groups of local protesters vandalizing tourist buses with slogans like “tourism kills neighborhoods.”

“Before the pandemic, coexistence between locals and tourists, especially young people and those who come to get drunk, was very conflictive,” says Antonio Martínez Gómez, president of the residents’ association for the Raval, another central Barcelona neighborhood.

But the pandemic has also shown just how much cities like Barcelona rely on tourists. More than 200 businesses in the city center folded between March and September 2020. “Lots of people fell into unemployment, and families are suffering because of the lack of income,” Martínez Gómez says. “The recovery in tourism will be good for the local economy. But we need to find a balance.”

Alok Lahad, who runs a souvenir shop near the Sagrada Familia, says Barcelona “is dead without tourists.” He has lived in the city for 25 years and used to be a jeweler, but converted his store after the 2008 financial crisis, selling models of the cathedral and nearby Parc Güell, as well as T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of Barcelona’s soccer team. The business has been mostly shuttered since March 2020, and Lahad says he has burned through his savings to pay rent and bills. “There’s a very big possibility I’ll lose the business if tourists don’t come back this summer,” he says. “The locals who criticize tourism don’t seem to understand that the people who are working in the industry are not foreigners, not tourists. They eat, drink, go to school and give business to the local nontourist businesses. They’re locals too.”

Officials say the pandemic might help rebalance the relationship between locals and tourists by starting afresh. “Without this year, it’d be like entering a wheel and it’s spinning and you can’t stop it,” says Marian Muro, who began her job as director of Barcelona’s embattled tourism board two weeks before the pandemic started. “We’ve spent a year just thinking.” Where the city was previously reacting to the problems tourism created, she argues, it is can now plan strategic investment in and promotion of the industry to exert some control over it.

Authorities’ main goal is alleviating pressure on the city center. Tourist buses will take a new route, and the Check Barcelona app will warn visitors of already busy attractions, beaches and parking lots. The app and marketing materials will highlight alternative neighborhoods, such as Poblenou to the east, a hub for tech; northern Gràcia, for its food scene; and the nearby wine region of Penedès.

But officials also want to revitalize locals’ relationship with their city. In June, the Rambla, the pedestrianized shopping street normally brimming with tourists, will hold a two-week festival encouraging local residents to reconnect with retailers and restaurants. The city has earmarked a fifth of its city recovery funds to “diversify and balance” neighborhoods, buying up some of the 5,323 vacant commercial spaces in the city to rent to local-friendly businesses at below-market rates. Paris credits a similar program in the 2000s with saving local amenities and stemming the rise of chain stores in its center.

Muro says her long-term goal is to bring different classes of visitors to Barcelona. That includes bigger spenders, such as Russian tourists, who spend almost 30% more during their visit than the average visitor. But she also wants people attracted by Barcelona’s culture and customs more than sunbathing and excessive drinking. “In the center, there are restaurants where I wouldn’t eat,” she says. “And if I wouldn’t eat there, then neither would the kind of tourists we’re pursuing.”

A more equitable and sustainable model for tourism

European governments are under substantial pressure to revive their pandemic-ravaged travel industries. International visitors spent $619 billion in Europe in 2019. That figure fell by 64% in 2020, and about 3.6 million people lost tourism jobs.

Governments across the region are now pushing to relax travel restrictions to allow a rebound this summer. But officials in Spain, Italy and Greece say they will use the recovery to make tourism more environmentally and socially sustainable. At a local level, the key is a more equal distribution of the industry, not just geographically, but also of the wealth it creates, says Marcé, the Barcelona tourism councillor. “We need to widen the frame. It can’t just be hotels and restaurants and luxury brands in the center of town, but also local actors that have a lot to offer visitors but maybe aren’t part of powerful lobbies that have set the agenda in tourism.” Stores selling daily necessities, cultural creators and local sports venues should also benefit, he adds.

Cusó, the Gothic Quarter resident, doubts the city’s plans will improve the lives of Barcelona residents. The only way to do that, he says, is to stop promoting the city and reduce the number of tourists who come. “I wanted the government to use this opportunity to rethink a new model for the city,” he says, arguing that the city should spend recovery funds to create new jobs in public health and education. “What they’re doing now is just an attempt to revert to the situation we had in 2019.”

Even if it is, Marcé doesn’t expect Barcelona’s tourism to recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2023, amid varying rates of vaccine rollouts and restriction easing around the world. Marcé says that time will allow the city’s strategy to bear fruit. “We think we can have a very different situation,” he says. “To find out, we need tourists to come back.”

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Spain's mass tourism in candidates' crosshairs in election year

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• Spain was second most-visited country in 2019
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Joan is a Barcelona-based correspondent reporting on politics, economics and social issues, such as migration and the car industry’s green transition, and also conducting investigative pieces. With over 15 years of experience, Joan previously worked as Washington correspondent for Spain’s leading newspaper EL PAÍS, closely covering the Obama and Trump administrations, electoral campaigns and major news; at Spanish newspapers Ara and Público in Madrid, and at EFE news agency in Buenos Aires and Barcelona. He is a journalism graduate from Barcelona’s Autonomous University, including an exchange program in Amsterdam and New York, and holds a business executive degree from IESE Business School

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Spain’s anti-tourist movement is reaching boiling point

BEHIND the beauty of this popular European city, a bitter battle is being waged and visitors are no longer welcome.

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SPAIN’S idyllic beaches, bold architecture, vibrant night-life and colourful culture draws millions of tourists every year. But behind the paradise a hostile battle is bubbling to the surface.

And we are at the centre of it.

Many Spaniards are growing frustrated by armies of tourists taking over town centres, disrupting the lives of locals and putting a strain on resources.

In 2016, some 75.3 million people visited the European country. That grossly outnumbers the country’s actual residents, of which there are about 46 million.

In fact, Spain has broken its own tourist number records each year for the past four years and currently holds the title of the world’s third most popular tourist destination, according to the UN’s World Tourism Organisation.

And while tourism represents some 11 per cent of Spain’s 1.2 trillion euro ($1.8 trillion) gross domestic product, an anti-tourism movement has been simmering among locals for quite some time. But it appears the anger may now be close to boiling point, with frustration turning into actual violence.

Last week there was a troubling assault on an open-top tourist bus in one of Spain’s most popular tourist destinations, Barcelona, as it pulled up outside the Camp Nou stadium of the city’s iconic football team FC Barcelona.

Four masked assailants slashed the vehicle’s tyres and scrawled “El Turisme Mata Els Barris” in Catalan — which translates as “Tourism Kills Neighbourhoods” — onto the bus windscreen.

At the time, many of the visitors on board that bus feared they were actually caught in a terrorist attack rather than what turned out to be an anti-tourist protest.

“I really thought it was a terrorist attack and my number was up,” British visitor Andrew Carey of Bridgend, who was on the bus with his wife Natalie, told the Telegraph .

“Masked men surrounded the bus and began shouting. We were getting ready for someone to come up the stairs with a knife or a gun. It was a relief that they just sprayed graffiti.

“It was very frightening.”

And just days later the tyres of rental bicycles for tourists were slashed.

Arran, the youth wing of the radical pro-independence political party CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy), has claimed responsibility for the anti-tourism campaign. They consider themselves activists fighting the rise of mass tourism in Spain.

At the core of the group’s problem with mass tourism is the belief that it creates an economic divide for the working classes, who are unable to afford apartment rentals because they are being forced out of the market by holiday-makers and inflated prices.

Accompanying a video of the Barcelona bicycle slashing that the group posted on Twitter, they wrote: “We are fed up with the occupation by tourist companies of the public space of the neighbourhood.” The account is littered with other similar anti-tourism sentiments.

Ja n'estem fartes de l'ocupació per part d'empreses turístiques de l'espai públic del barri, ACTUEM! UNEIX-TE AL COMBAT✊🏼 pic.twitter.com/PG7Ru3xljY — Arran del Poblenou🗝 (@ArranP9) July 31, 2017

Sembla que hi ha una nova atracció turística a #Vallcarca . #NoÉsTurismefòbia #LluitaDeClasses pic.twitter.com/a0sAGE6JKW — Heura Negra (@AsLLibVallcarca) August 2, 2017

A spokesman for Arran said the vandalism in Barcelona was an act of “self defence”.

“The mass tourism in Catalonia is generating huge social inequality,” a spokesman told IBTimes UK .

“Thousands of people are forced to leave their neighbourhoods and thousands more are forced into very bad working conditions.”

It is estimated that Barcelona pulls in around 32 million visitors a year, including cruise passengers and day-trippers. That’s 20 times the city’s population of just 1.6 million.

And Arran aren’t the only ones fighting against it in Barcelona. The anti-tourist movement gained momentum when in June 2015, the city got a new mayor, Ada Colau — an outspoken critic of tourists.

After being elected to office, Colau, who is a member of the Barcelona in Common party, said she feared Barcelona would “end up like Venice”, a city in which tourism has been blamed for driving locals away.

She then introduced tourist caps, including on the city’s famous La Boqueria markets, and put a one-year moratorium on new licences for hotel and tourist apartments in the city.

And Barcelona also isn’t the only Spanish city in the fight either. Arran has fought back in the Spanish island of Majorca.

Members of the group recently stormed a restaurant in Palma, a resort city and the capital of Majorca.

They threw confetti and set off smoke bombs at a the Mar de Nudos restaurant, and displayed a poster which read: “Tourism Kills Majorca”, according to The Times .

Last year, Palma was also branded with unwelcoming messages to incoming tourists. On an old brick wall in a town centre, the words “Tourist go home” were emblazoned in bright red spray-paint. Another message on another wall, this one in black, read: “Tourist you are the terrorist”.

Ibiza and Minorca, which make up the Spanish Balearic Islands with Majorca, have also expressed concerns over a rising number of visitors.

In the popular party island of Ibiza, which is prone to drought, water reserves are dwindling. In rural Menorca there are fears natural attractions could be ruined by tourism.

To try and combat the problems mass tourism can bring, the Balearic Islands implemented a Sustainable Tourism Tax in July 2016 — an additional payment of up to two euros ($AU3) for each overnight stay.

Back in Barcelona, Colau condemned the attack on the tour bus by tweeting that “protesting against tourism can never be about intimidating people or damaging facilities”.

But Laura Flores, a spokesman for Arran, said that the group’s vandalism is “a response to the violence we face every day. The street must be allowed to speak; it’s the only place where we can fight,” she said, according to The Guardian .

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• Tourist Phobia Why Anti Tourism...

Tourist-Phobia: Why Anti-Tourism Protests Have Exploded in Spain

Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Bilbao… these are just some of the cities that have seen waves of anti-tourism protest erupt over the past few weeks. As holidaymakers wonder whether it’s still a good idea to visit Spain this summer, the local governments are struggling to appease locals fed up with the consequences of mass tourism on their lives and their neighbourhoods.

A booming tourist industry.

In 2016, Spain was officially the most-visited country in the world, with some 75.3 million visitors. The Catalan capital Barcelona alone received an estimated 34 million visitors, including day-trippers and cruise-ship clients, marking a 25% increase from 2012. It’s no surprise, then, that the tourism industry is believed to account for 11% of the country’s GDP, and as such is playing an important role in the country’s current economic recovery after the 2008 financial crash, which hit Spain particularly hard.

Despite the perceived positive economic impact of the tourism industry in Spain, the country has recently seen a wave of anti-tourist sentiment in some of the most popular destinations, from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca and the Basque Country . The protestors claim that the growing numbers of tourists visiting their cities are affecting the quality of life of local residents, driving up prices and crowding them out of their neighbourhoods.

A Vocal Backlash

As the tourist season reached its peak over the summer, protests across Spain have left holidaymakers unsure whether or not to continue with their holiday plans. The demonstrations have ranged from graffiti, with slogans such as ‘tourists go home’ and ‘tourism kills the city’, to more confrontational acts of vandalism such as a tourist bus having its tyres slashed and its windows spray-painted in Barcelona.

Those involved in the protests claim that the widespread mass tourism in Spain is negatively affecting working-class residents who have seen their wages stagnate while the cost of living increases. While the tourism industry creates jobs, many of these are low-skilled, low-paid jobs with short-term, seasonal contracts, which offer the younger generation little in terms of job stability or prospects for professional growth.

Speculation in the housing market has driven up house prices, as companies such as Airbnb and HomeAway make it easier for landlords to make large sums of money renting their properties out on short lets to tourists. As a result, there are fewer homes available for locals to rent, and the rise in demand has seen prices soar. Rental website Idealista recorded an average 16% increase in rent costs in 2016.

Ultimately, there is a sense in some neighbourhoods that locals are being pushed out of their homes, with certain neighbourhoods such as Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter recording more beds available for tourists than for permanent residents and over 50% of all buildings containing tourist apartments .

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Visiting Spain This Summer

Ultimately, the tourist season is still in full swing, and many holidaymakers are still planning on visiting Spain this summer. Official government travel advice has not issued any warnings about travelling to the country, and there have so far been no records of direct violence against tourists.

Nonetheless, to avoid any hassle, there are a few steps travellers can make to make their stay more enjoyable. For many locals, it’s not all forms of tourism and tourists that are the problem, but rather the hyper-concentrated mass-tourism that wipes places of their character and authenticity. At one extreme, there are cruise-ship guests visiting cities for nine hours and expecting to consume a ready-made piece of Spain, and at the other, there are travellers who do their research and enjoy a more slow-paced, humble experience.

As a general rule, travellers should try to avoid certain tourist hotspots during peak times. La Rambla in Barcelona and the harbour at Palma de Mallorca are prime examples of places, which are usually overcrowded by tourists. These are some of the areas where locals feel as if they no longer belong, among the rows of tacky trinket stalls and overpriced tourist-trap restaurants.

Another prudent move is to check the status of your accommodation, opting for tourist rentals that are issued with the necessary license ( this website allows you to check the status of apartments in Barcelona). Hotels located outside the main tourist areas tend to be in quieter neighbourhoods and attract less attention than those in the centre of town.

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EXCLUSIVE: Locals in Spain give their verdict as wave of anti-tourism reaches Tenerife – after Malaga, Valencia and Palma – but residents are divided on the issue

By Laurence Dollimore and Walter Finch in Tenerife

IT began in Mallorca in the summer of 2017, quickly followed in Barcelona and Valencia and now it has spread around almost all of Spain.

The anti-tourism protests, organised by anarchist group Arran, first gained international headlines when they rocked diners at a portside restaurant in Palma.

As reported in the Olive Press, the two dozen masked protesters held banners and flares outside the restaurant Mar de Nudos then showered the mostly foreign punters with confetti.

The following week an unnamed organiser revealed they would ‘continue to carry out’ numerous plans they had for the summer, adding: “We know tourism is something we can’t avoid, but we want people who come to our island to realise they are contributing to its contamination and destruction.”

They claimed to have over 500 members and went on to plaster 1,000 rental cars with anti-tourism stickers.

Soon a sightseeing bus in Barcelona had its tyres slashed and was daubed with graffiti claiming ‘tourism kills neighbourhoods’. The masked protesters were so intimidating the tourists believed they were being attacked by terrorists.

In Valencia, meanwhile, protesters seized a rental apartment used for city breaks and unfurled a banner decrying the gentrification of the barrio caused by tourism.

It led to Spain’s then Prime Minister Rajoy to condemn the ‘crazy’ actions, with Arran hitting back accusing him of ‘giving little importance’ to ‘unsustainable’ tourism.

Their message was certainly a reasonable one: that ‘touristification’ destroys neighbourhoods, causes prices to go up and makes long term rental accommodation almost impossible for most locals.

While the protests slowed down, particularly with the pandemic, they came back with a vengeance last year with signs warning tourists off beaches on the Costa Blanca and anti-tourist graffiti being seen around Malaga and Sevilla. Protests were organised in Mallorca, Sevilla and Barcelona.

The latest campaign kicked off Tenerife this month, when the holiday island made global headlines when a series of graffiti messages were scrawled on walls and buildings, reading ‘tourists go home’, ‘your paradise, our misery’, and ‘average salary in Canary Islands €1,200.’ 

The Olive Press went out to investigate, discovering that tensions are very much bubbling under and it’s likely to spread to mainland Spain anytime soon.

Locals in Tenerife are furious that holidaymakers are turning their paradise into a ‘tourism ghetto’ thanks to soaring rents, inflation and yobbish behaviour. 

In 2023, Tenerife received 5.6million visitors, up 600,000 compared to 2019, setting a new record. 

While some locals attempt to shrug off the graffiti as the work of a disgruntled few, there are many on the island who find agreement with the message. 

Josua Garcia-Garcia, 33, who works in a bar in Playas de las Americas, told the Olive Press: “It can be a nightmare when the tourists come, I only get four hours of sleep every night because of the music and noise, which keeps me up until 3am. 

“We need stricter rules for tourists, a lot of them are ignorant of how we are suffering. 

“Rents are soaring and people on average salaries cannot afford to live here anymore, once they pay their rent they have no money for food.

“Some areas have been totally saturated by tourism. The police need to be tougher and bring in stricter rules, people are fed up.”

Anti-tourism campaigners claim an increase in holiday lets means an increasing number of homes are unavailable to rent to locals. 

This decreases supply and therefore brings price increases. Homeowners are more tempted to rent to high-paying holidaymakers than long-term tenants. 

Last May, hundreds of protesters took to the streets, holding up signs reading ‘The Canaries are no longer a paradise’ and ‘the Canaries are not for sale’. 

The march was organised by almost a dozen social and environmental groups, who are calling for a tourism ‘eco-tax’. 

They claimed the island’s services ‘totally collapsed’, with ‘a coast full of sewage spills, kilometre long traffic jams’ and the ‘destruction of the environment due to the construction of new hotel complexes in coastal areas’. 

Olivia Valdiva, 50, who lives in Palm-Mar, said: “Life is very hard here now, the only people who live well are the foreigners and tourists. 

“We can’t afford to eat well and maintain a car and house, the locals are tired of having no money.” 

Zarita Chinea, 39, described the area as ‘a bit of a tourism ghetto’ due to its fierce reliance on the industry. 

“It’s like there are two worlds in Tenerife, the tourists and the locals, and we don’t mix. 

“I would try to reduce the number of holidaymakers and I think we need better quality tourists, who respect our land and nature, who want to explore the real Tenerife and go hiking for example.”

Alex Kelly, 20, is a British expat working in the popular Rejoyce bar in Las Playas de Las Americas. She said: “Living here has gotten tough in the last few years, rent is just unaffordable. 

“I’m living with my boyfriend in his parents’ home because we can’t afford to move out.

“‘I totally get the viewpoint of the anti-tourism people, a lot of young people feel that way, the prices are crazy.”

We need tourists! 

Emiliano del Pino, 58, who was born and raised on the island, admitted there were problems but insisted tourism is still very much welcome. 

“There is a problem with drought and water since last year, and the government’s priority is to make sure the tourist areas are cared for ahead of the locals in the countryside, and that can obviously rub people the wrong way.”

However, he insisted that tourism is essential to the island’s economy. 

The retiree added: “The people behind the graffiti are just kids who have been spoon fed from birth and now there are economic problems, they are lashing out. 

“But there are the same problems all over the world, not just here, we can’t blame tourism for that.”

Jorge Sanchez, 58, who works in a local cinema, echoed this sentiment, telling the Olive Press that ‘without tourism, Tenerife is f****d.’ 

He said: “The whole anti-tourism movement is stupid. Take away all the tourists and what the hell are we going to do? These young people want to blame others for society’s problems, but we need the British, the Germans, the Italians, without them we don’t have an economy.’ 

Brits bark back 

Meanwhile, British bar owners raced to defend themselves over what they see as an attack on their businesses and way of life. 

Scott Walters, 35, from Stoke-on-Trent, has owned the Havanas bar in Playas de Las Americas for 10 years. 

He told this paper: “I understand the young people’s point of view, rents have gone crazy, there are people with five or six Airbnbs and this pushes prices up. 

“For a studio around here it can be like €1,200 per month, which is more than the average salary. 

“It’s also upsetting to see friends who are local but have to live so far away to be able to afford a place. 

“But Tenerife needs tourism and I think we bring a lot to their economy so it’s kind of a Catch 22 situation.”

Dawn Warriner, 33, who owns the Sun Lounge next door, also feels disheartened by some of the anti-tourism comments. 

The Manchester native, who opened her bar just before Covid struck, told the Olive Press: “Some of the locals clearly don’t want us here but I think it’s a minority. 

“There were hundreds of protesters a few months ago shouting all this anti-tourism stuff. 

“I understand that rents have increased a lot recently and I do get that, but they need tourists here, they’d be nothing without it.

“Police here have also not been friendly to us Brits, when I went to the station to report a crime I had witnessed, they heard me speaking English and shouted ‘Brexit’ and laughed.”

• The Olive Press

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Laurence Dollimore

Laurence has a BA and MA in International Relations and a Gold Standard diploma in Multi-Media journalism from News Associates in London. He has almost a decade of experience and previously worked as a senior reporter for the Mail Online in London.

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Why a rise in 'tourism-phobia' should give Australians flocking to European summer a cause for pause

It's that time of year again when social media feeds become flooded with "Euro summer" holiday content.

Every winter, there's a cohort of Australians who escape to the Mediterranean Sea, seeking an idyllic scene to sip Aperol spritz in the sun.

But, they may not all be getting a warm welcome. 

Since pandemic travel restrictions eased, tourism has come surging back and Europe is copping an influx of visitors in record numbers.

And some locals aren't happy about it. 

Graffiti and stickers exclaiming, "Tourists go home!" and threats such as "We'll spit in your beer" are becoming a common sight across major cities. 

Anti-tourism protests are also spreading, with locals angered by "bad tourists", short-term rentals and "the touristification of daily life".

Experts say at this rate there's no way tourism can be sustainable, and we need to re-think the way we travel so we're not part of the problem. 

A return to overseas travel

Australians are back on the move.

In 2023, nearly 10 million residents returned from a short-term trip overseas , an increase of over 4.7 million on the previous year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

June was a particularly high time to travel, with more Australians leaving the country in mid-last year than in December 2022. 

Skyscanner Australia travel expert, Jarrod Kris, says there has been an increase in Australians searching for flights to European destinations.

Search volumes for European countries in 2023 were up by 28 per cent on the previous year, with Greece, France, Italy and Spain among the most popular.

Searches were also 16 per cent higher than pre-pandemic 2019, Mr Kris said. 

Based on Skyscanner flight booking data, the most popular 2024 Euro summers destinations for Australians so far are: 

• 2. Manchester
• 4. Istanbul

Landing in an overtourism crisis

Many of these popular destinations are facing an "overtourism crisis", Claudio Milano from the University of Barcelona's department of social anthropology, said. 

And it's leading to a resurgence of "tourism-phobia".

The term emerged around the 2008 financial crisis with locals blaming tourists for their deteriorating quality of life.

Now as crowds have come flooding back in record numbers after the pandemic reprieve, so too has social unrest and tourism rejection.

Especially as cities confront housing emergencies, masses of Airbnb lockboxes strewn down residential streets are a scathing sign of the times. 

Already Europe's foreign tourist arrivals for 2024 have exceeded 2019 levels.

And summer is bringing two major sporting events to the continent — the Paris Olympics and the UEFA European Football Championship in Germany.

Tourism officials expect 15.3 million visitors to the French capital over the Olympics period. 

Parisians have been staging protests and strikes, calling out the social impact the Games will have on their city, which is already the most-visited destination in the world.

Locals lash out   

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of residents have also been taking to the streets in Athens, Venice, Barcelona and Spain's Balearic Islands.

Last weekend, protesters occupied beaches frequented by tourists in Mallorca, after about 10,000 demonstrated the previous week under the banner #Mallorca no es ven — Mallorca is not for sale. 

Smaller protests have been held in neighbouring Menorca and the notorious party island Ibiza.

And throughout April, more than 50,000 people from the small Spanish Canary Islands took part in demonstrations.

Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, a lecturer in tourism management at the University of South Australia, says it's clear impacts of overtourism have reached new heights.   

"The recent activism in the Canary Islands, where tens of thousands of people came out in a relatively small community, indicates just how angry people are," she told the ABC.

Fake signs have been spotted at Spanish beaches warning tourists that there's dangerous jellyfish and falling rocks.

Then small-print in Catalan reads "the problem isn’t a rockfall, it's mass tourism", according to local media reports. 

There's also been more confronting backlash with reports of rentals cars, bikes and tourist buses being vandalised or their tires slashed.

Tourists making life unlivable

Professor Milano says similar messages are being echoed by anti-tourism activists and movements across the board.

Locals are frustrated by cities being oversold and overcrowded with "capitalistic tourism".

Short-term rentals are raising housing costs, taking over residential buildings, and pricing locals out of living in their own towns.

Javier Carbonell, a real estate agent in Mallorca, told Reuters over half of rental properties were used for holiday rentals and were not affordable for locals.

"We want less mass tourism and more sustainable tourism," Mr Carbonell said.

Professor Higgins-Desbiolles said cities and towns have become completely over-run by tourists, making them unlivable and unrecognisable to those who call them home.

"There's no problem having tourists in the city, the problem is to have only tourists in the city," Professor Milano said. 

He called it the "touristification of daily life".

In places such as Venice, Italy, locals have been displaced due to poorly managed tourism, Professor Higgins-Desbiolles said.

Some shops that sustained local life have been replaced with tacky souvenir shops.

"Because of tourism developments and the way tourism has run, it's made it difficult to lead normal lives," she said.

"Whether you can travel to Venice, and have that accepted, requires thought on the part of the traveller."

Should you still travel?

Professor Milano says for the most part activists are not angered by the tourist encounter, rather the tourism model and the issues it provokes. 

They don't want no tourism at all, but he admitted they do want better tourists. 

And there are ways to minimise negative effects so your travels benefit local businesses. 

Avoid Airbnb 

In Athens, graffiti is sprayed across walls showing buildings up in flames alongside the words "burn Airbnb", according to local media.

And protesters in the city have been waving signs reading "Barcelona: Tourists welcome, locals NOT welcome", and chanting "tourists are taking our houses".

Professor Milano said travellers should avoid booking Airbnb and instead find a hotel.

And tourists should try to spend money on local businesses as much as they can. 

A lot of frustration stems from outside entities profiting while locals suffer, Professor Higgins-Desbiolles said. 

"The most simple advice that I could give to make sure you're welcome — no matter where you go — is to knowledgeably and intentionally spend money in that local economy." 

Beware of 'live like a local' myths 

Travellers are being warned about falling for commercial narratives that promote getting a local's experience. 

"With Airbnb, we have brought tourism into our buildings," Professor Milano said. 

"Airbnb used to be promoted as 'live like a local' ... But it’s not 'live like a local' because the property manager is a big company that probably owns 200 apartments in Barcelona."

In some cities, residential areas are becoming so congested locals can't easily access their own streets or get on a bus. 

The advice is to stay away from the crowded areas and avoid travelling at peak seasons.

Scrap the multi-stop trips

What has been called the "Ryanair revolution" has enabled travellers to jet between European destinations for next to nothing.

This hyper mobility is a big part of the problem, Professor Milano said.

Regularly flying to Europe for two weeks and visiting several destinations isn't uncommon for some Australians. 

But Professor Higgins-Desbiolles says we need to consider slowing down — not just for the wellbeing of the local communities, but for the environment.

"Access to these places is not our right, it’s a privilege," she said.

"We need to get more considered in our consumption."

She said we don't need to stop holidaying, but it would be better to scale it back to one big holiday every few years, and staying in the one country.

'Don't be a jerk'

Protesters in the Canary Islands have been calling out "bad tourists" who disrespect the land and culture.

While campaigns in Amsterdam have been targeting badly-behaved tourists with the slogan "stay away" if your plan is to come for a messy night "getting trashed".

Professor Higgins-Desbiolles says if you want to be accepted in cities, simply "don’t be a jerk".

"You're a visitor in somebody's home, and that's the thing about these destinations that we forget — these are local people's homes," she said.

"Visitors think they have a right to go to places, that their money buys them access, and that they don't need to be thoughtful and sensitive."

This also applies to "commodifying travels", and the lengths people will take to get the perfect social media shot. 

Listen to communities 

Policies and measures are being rolled out in many places to address overcrowding, such as introducing tourist taxes, entry fees, and capping visitor numbers at peak times. 

Professor Higgins-Desbiolles says it's also important to listen to what communities want, because locals are saying this isn't enough.

"We should stop emphasising continual economic growth to instead look at wellbeing," she said. 

Countries outside Europe have been developing responsible tourist pledges for visitors to sign when they arrive.

The Pacific Island nation of Palau has taken this a step further, opening up local opportunities for tourists who abide by the pledge and show respect.

"That's what gets you a warm welcome into these places," Dr Higgins-Desbiolles said.

"We really should centre tourism on local community rights. That would make the difference."

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Anti-tourism protesters STORM Instagram famous Majorca beach as Spanish cops are forced to turn holidaymakers away

• Natalia Penza
• Juliana Cruz Lima
• Published : 11:03, 16 Jun 2024
• Updated : 20:15, 16 Jun 2024
• Published : Invalid Date,

ANTI-tourism zealots have stormed an Instagram-famous Majorca beach as they continue to run rife across Spain this summer.

Holidaymakers trying to get an early spot on the sand were barely able to lay down their towels as Spanish cops were forced to turn them away.

The number of protesters had swelled to more than 300 by around 10am, at the same time the first families were arriving at Calo des Moro.

Tourists quickly left the beach after being met with the hundreds of angry locals cascading down the rocky shores.

Nearly half a dozen Civil Guard officers also showed up around the same time, asking protest leaders to identify themselves.

Islanders kept their promise to "reclaim" the postcard cove from foreigners by taking up every inch of space on the tiny 130ft stretch of sand with their beach towels.

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They say Calo des Moro has been taken over by influencer tourists who "only go there to take a picture".

Pictures show dozens of locals holding anti-tourist signs and waving "SOS residents" and "it's time to act" banners.

One witness said: “The first tourists who turned up looked very surprised to find it packed with people at such an early hour.

“But they seemed to understand what was going on when it was explained to them and they turned round and left without any fuss.”

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An islander supporting the protest added: “If the aim of today’s action was to reclaim the beach and denounce tourist massification, it’s certainly been acheived.

“Today Calo des Moro is definitely Majorcan.”

Anti-tourism protesters plan to bring the ­Balearic Islands to a standstill during the peak season for British holidaymakers.

Activists hope thousands will join the biggest demonstration yet in the Spanish tourism hotspot on Sunday, July 21 — just as many UK  schools  break up for  summer  and families head for the sunshine.

They blame the Spanish government for causing a housing and  jobs  crisis by sanctioning more  hotels  and holiday lets — and are calling on islanders from Majorca , Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera to march in their thousands through the streets.

Organisers selected the date at a meeting called by “Menys Turisme, Mes Vida” — Less Tourism, More Life.

Anti-tourist measures sweeping hotspots

MAJORCA and Menorca are just some of the European hotspots implementing anti-tourist measures.

Many top holiday destinations across the continent are taking action to prevent unwanted travellers from taking over their towns and cities.

Locals feel they can no longer live in the iconic destinations because they have become overcrowded, unsafe and uncomfortable.

They say there are too many cars on the roads, traffic congestion, overcrowded beaches, blocked access roads, ruined beauty spots and just too many holidaymakers flocking to the island which expects record figures this  summer .

In April, thousands of people took to the streets in Tenerife to demand restrictions on holidaymakers after telling Brits to "go home".

The anti-tourist hordes filled a square in the capital brandishing banners including some that read “You enjoy we suffer” in English.

Protests also took place at the same time on other popular Canary islands including Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.

The marches were organised under the slogan "The Canary Islands have a limit.”

Hotel bosses in Benidorm have even admitted they are “very worried” by the  anger growing amongst island  residents but branded holiday homes in  Spain  a "virus".

More recently, the Committee on Tourism, Trade, Employment, Culture and Sport reportedly approved an initiative to reintroduce a cap on cruise ships to Palma , Majorca's capital.

Politicians are keen to implement a new set of rules on cruise ships in terms of taxation, the environment or the use of less polluting fuels to lower numbers coming into the Balearics.

It was behind a protest on May 25 that saw  15,000 people storm through Majorca’s capital Palma, jeering at travellers  as they sat at dinner.

Margalida Ramis, head of affiliated group GOB Mallorca, said: “We are in contact with groups on the other islands.

"We’re hoping those who supported the recent protests in Majorca and Ibiza will take part along with others like tourist industry workers.”

She said “tourist saturation” was responsible for “job and life insecurity,” a lack of housing and “environmental and ecological issues”.

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Jaume Pujol, of Fridays for Future Mallorca, added: “We want to mobilise the older people of the island who have seen how it’s been destroyed.”

Organisers hope the demo will have a similar impact to the April 20 Canary Islands protest in Tenerife which around 80,000 people joined.

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Travel agents 'should cancel' holidays to Spain, Majorca and Tenerife as anti-tourism protests rage

Despite bringing in huge sums of money, thousands of people in Spain have been protesting against tourism in certain areas

• 13:10, 15 JUN 2024
• Updated 13:59, 15 JUN 2024

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British holidaymakers are warning that they may not travel to Spain this summer due to the increasing number of anti-tourism protests. Thousands have taken to the streets in the Balearic Islands to protest against mass tourism and overcrowding - despite tourism accounting for around 45 per cent of the islands' gross domestic product.

One of the large-scale demonstrations saw almost 10,000 people parade through the streets of Mallorca’s capital at the end of May, carrying posters that read “SOS Residents” and “Enough Mass Tourism”. Demonstrators say holiday rentals are pricing locals out and affecting things like access to housing, water management and the economic diversification of the island.

A Spanish National police spokesperson said around 10,000 people took part in one protest in Mallorca, while protests also took place on the mainland - including Barcelona. People are calling for 'sustainable tourism'.

Brits are now threatening to not travel to Spain for their holidays due to the ill-feeling on the island. Responding to the demonstrations on Facebook , a Brit sniped: "Notably the Spanish aren’t slow in taking holiday makers money though." A second said: "All UK travel agents should cancel holidays to Spain, Majorca and Tenerife due to non friendly actions against their clients and possible court cases."

According to BirminghamLive , another said: "Go to Turkey it's very hot in August... cheap to eat and drink and very good value we have been several times and have never had a bad time the locals are friendly to you.

"We went out for a meal one evening and after we had finished we had a coffee and asked for a Brandy with it and they didn't have Brandy and they sent out somebody and he came back with a Bottle of Brandy and gave us a glass each on the house. Give it a go you wont be disappointed."

Javier Vich, who is the president of the Palma Hoteliers Association and CEO of the Summum Hotel Group, fears that fewer travellers will book holidays to the Balearic Island after reading reports of the protests. He said: “It is very difficult to build a destination and very easy to destroy it.”

“There are clients who ask at reception what is happening on the streets,” adds Mr Vich. “It is true that we have a problem.”

The Balearic Group of Ornithology and Nature Protection of Menorca (GOB Menorca) said on its website that it was protesting "the massification of , the problem of access to housing, water management and the economic diversification of the island".

Another demo is scheduled for June 16 in Palma, with plans being discussed for protests across the Balearic Islands – Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca and Formentera – on July 21. After Catalonia, the Balearic Islands was the second most popular region of Spain for tourists last year, attracting 14.4 million holidaymakers, the Spanish National Statistics Institute said.

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