The rise in tourism has sparked numerous anti-tourism protests in Spain and across Europe, with locals blaming visitors for rising housing costs, inflation and environmental degradation. Some affected areas have begun to take small steps to ease residents’ fears.
“Our city is not for sale!” Ecologistas, a Spanish organisation with hundreds of members from across Spain, marched through the Andalusian town of El Puerto de Santa María on July 20 to denounce “uncontrolled mass tourism”.
Thousands of protesters marched in Barcelona on July 6 to denounce tourist overcrowding, following another large demonstration against mass tourism on July 22 in Mallorca, an island known for its beaches, protected coves, limestone mountains and archaeological sites.
Spain is set to see an increase of 24 million tourists in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year, an annual increase of 14.5%. The country has already recorded its highest ever number of international visitors in 2023.
The tourism boom has driven up shop prices and housing costs, and locals say it’s becoming harder to secure housing.
Popular Spanish destinations like Barcelona and Seville, as well as Venice in Italy, Etretat in France, and Athens and Paros in Greece, all saw sharp declines in tourism during the pandemic, but tourism is now on the rise again in Europe and elsewhere, encouraged by cheap flights and the promotion of specific itineraries on social media.
The sector is an undeniable source of income for the countries involved: in Spain, for example, tourism spending is expected to rise by 22.6% to over 31.5 billion euros in the first quarter of 2024, thanks to rising numbers and prices, according to the National Institute of Statistics. But uncontrolled mass tourism is becoming more and more of a disaster for local populations.
“An aggressive and intolerable habitat”
Barcelona, Spain’s most touristy city, attracts about 12 million visitors a year, many of them on cruise ships. The growing numbers of visitors every year are taking a toll on residents, putting a strain on health services, waste disposal, water supplies and housing.
In early July, about 3,000 people marched through Gaudi town, chanting “Tourists go home!” and spraying people they identified as tourists with water pistols.
A protester uses a megaphone as people protest against mass tourism in Alicante, Spain, July 13, 2024. © Josep Lago, AFP
In response, authorities announced they would ban apartment rentals to tourists by 2028. A total of 10,000 apartments will no longer be allowed for short-term rental on platforms such as Airbnb. The city’s leftist mayor, Jaume Corboni, also announced plans to increase a tourist tax for cruise ship passengers visiting the city for less than 12 hours.
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Residents of Andalusia, another Spanish destination popular with international visitors, have also expressed resentment at mass tourism. “My dream is to retire, rent out my apartment and leave Seville,” Francisco Martínez, president of the Ancha la Feria neighborhood association, told daily El País about the encroachment of terraces in the historic city center. “The city center may be a good place to drink a beer, but it has become an aggressive and unbearable place to live.”
Seville’s conservative mayor, Jose Luis Sanz, announced in February that plans were afoot to impose an entrance fee at Plaza de España, a major tourist attraction particularly popular with tourists visiting the Andalusian capital.
“We plan to close the Plaza de España and charge tourists for its preservation and security,” he wrote on X. He attached to the news a video showing broken tiles and balustrades, as well as street vendors sitting in the square’s recesses and on its steps.
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Authorities in the Italian city of Venice launched a pilot program to charge day-trippers a 5-euro admission fee to stroll along the city’s famous canals on busy days. The measure was deemed insufficient by most residents, who thought limiting the number of visitors per day would be a better way to protect the city. Peru, for example, has adopted a measure to limit admission to Machu Picchu to 2,500 people per day.
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Accept Manage Choices On April 25, 2024, Venice became the first city in the world to introduce a paid entrance fee system for some tourists. © Marco Bertorello, AFP
Other European cities, such as Amsterdam in the Netherlands, have also opted to increase tourism taxes. The Dutch capital has confirmed that it will increase the tourist tax on hotel rooms to 12.5% of the room rate for all travelers. The city, which is actively preventing tourism that reduces the quality of life for its residents, has also tightened regulations to curb tourism related to cannabis consumption and now bans the construction of new hotels.
“They are taking our homes while living in the Maldives.”
In the Metaxorgio district of Athens, Greece, locals are increasingly frustrated by the tourist presence: “They live in the Maldives but they take our homes. We give them tzatziki and togas,” one resident said.
Businesses in this bohemian district are converting buildings into co-working spaces to accommodate digital nomads, a growing subcategory of people who travel and work remotely, and the total number of short-term rentals in Athens has surged nearly 500 percent in less than a decade.
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Greece has begun raising taxes and doubling the minimum investment needed to obtain a golden visa in an effort to slow the phenomenon of mass tourism, but the government has hesitated to introduce tougher measures.
“The needs of the whole population, both renters and owners, must be taken into account,” said Harry Theoharis, Greece’s former deputy minister of national economy and finances. He believes more measures are needed, but added that more research is needed to avoid taking measures that will destroy the market.
The Beach Towel Revolt on the Greek island of Paros in the Cyclades began as a fight against the privatization of the island’s beaches. “We are concerned about the dispossession of Paros’ beaches by companies exploiting parts of the coastline,” wrote the group, which launched on Facebook a year ago.
A major stop on Greek cruises, Santorini sees throngs of tourists flocking to its hotels, beaches and restaurants every year. Of the 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, about 3.4 million, or one in 10, visited the island of just 15,500 inhabitants.
In the narrow streets of the town of Oia, locals have posted signs urging visitors to respect their home: “Please be respectful… This is your holiday destination… but this is our home.”
According to the Greek Ports Association, 800 cruise ships were expected to carry 1.3 million passengers in 2023. Some islands are on the verge of saturation, leading authorities to consider imposing restrictions.
Read more Santorini outraged over cruelty to ‘tourist donkey’
“I’m not against tourists.”
France is not far behind when it comes to mass tourism, with authorities particularly concerned about how to handle millions of visitors concentrated in just a few destinations, including Paris, Mont Saint-Michel and the Calanques National Park near Marseille.
Every year, around 1.5 million tourists travel to Étretat on France’s northern coast to see the famous cliffs, sometimes risking their lives to take photos for social media.
“The nature of tourism has changed in the last decade. Instagram tourism has no interest in the surrounding areas,” Brigitte Côté, president of the Annecy Old Town Residents’ Association, told France Bleu radio in an interview last May.
There has been a recent backlash against this type of tourism in Japan, when authorities in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, near Mount Fuji, erected netting panels to hide a particularly popular view of the stratovolcano. The effort was aimed at hiding the panoramic views from tourists who locals consider to be too disrespectful.
Beyond tensions between tourists and residents, mass tourism often leads to environmental degradation: in Étretat, beach trampling has caused accidents, erosion and destruction of biodiversity, in Venice cruise ships have docked in shallow lagoons and caused extensive damage, and on Everest overcrowding has led to horrific pollution, with the Nepalese army removing 11 tonnes of waste and four bodies from the Roof of the World and two other Himalayan peaks this year.
In this photo taken on June 12, 2024, workers separate waste collected from Everest for recycling. © Prakash Mathema, AFP
There is no universal solution, but authorities know they must act carefully. Tourism still has a positive impact in most regions, a fact that many disgruntled people, especially in Spain, are aware of. “We are not against tourists, we are against the type of tourism that is driving us out.”
This article has been adapted from the original French text.
