Excessive tourism comes at the expense of residents, putting pressure on health services, waste management, water supplies and housing.
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Thousands of Barcelona residents took to the streets to protest against overtourism.
On Saturday afternoon, around 3,000 people from more than 140 groups took to the streets of the Spanish city, spraying tourists with water and yelling “tourists go home” as they symbolically blocked entrances to hotels and restaurants.
Experts say a record-breaking summer is expected in Barcelona and across the Catalonia region, but they are urging action before it gets too late. Barcelona is Spain’s most touristy city, attracting 12 million visitors a year, many of them on cruise ships.
Rising visitor numbers are straining health services, waste management, water and housing at the expense of residents. Historic sites, biodiversity and natural resources are at risk due to the rise in hotel and residential development.
The city council recently voted in favour of increasing tourist tax to up to €4 per person from October.
Recent outbursts of discontent have also occurred in several other popular tourist destinations in Europe, forcing local governments to address and reassess the relationship between tourists and residents.
From outspoken graffiti to hunger strikes, here’s how destinations struggling with overtourism are fighting back.
Spain’s tourist destinations struggle to cope with housing crisis
One of the most pressing impacts of overtourism in Spain right now is a housing shortage and rising rent prices for residents.
Earlier this year, residents of Malaga expressed their frustration by sticking stickers on walls and doors in the Spanish city centre, telling visitors what they thought of them.
These range from fairly mild ones such as “This used to be my home” (antes esta era mi casa) and “This used to be the city centre” (antes esto era el centro) to “Fuck you, go home” (a tu puta casa) and “You smell like a tourist” (apestando a turista).
The city on the Costa del Sol has long been a popular destination for foreign tourists thanks to its sunny climate and relatively low cost of living, but it is also seeing a rise in digital nomads, putting the housing shortage at risk.
The “sticker campaign” was started by bar owner Dani Durnko, who explained in an interview with local newspaper Diario Sur that he started the movement after being “evicted” from the home he had lived in for 10 years.
He claimed the landlord refused to negotiate the rent or even sell the property because he wanted to turn it into a short-term rental for tourists.
It’s a story being repeated across the country, with landlords evicting long-term residents in favor of vacationers or raising rents so that only high-income digital nomads can afford it. Protests have erupted across the country this year, from Ibiza to Malaga to Menorca.
The situation in the Canary Islands is similarly dire.
Activists say the more than 10 million foreign tourists who holiday on the island each year are ruining life on the island, and soaring house prices have reportedly forced locals to sleep in their cars and caves.
One local group said the islands were “fading socially and environmentally” under the pressure of mass tourism.
The Ecologists in Action report warned that around 34 percent of the local population – some 800,000 people – are at risk of poverty and social exclusion.
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Canary Islands residents go on hunger strike to protest hotel development
Building accommodation and services for the holidaymakers flocking to the Canaries is also putting pressure on land use, waste management, water supplies and biodiversity.
A group of activists on the Canary island of Tenerife launched a hunger strike in April this year over the construction of two new hotels, but called it off after 20 days because strikers said authorities showed “no interest” in their plight.
Authorities had halted work on Hotels La Tejita and Cuna del Alma in Puertito de Adeje, Tenerife, citing environmental violations, but construction recently resumed.
The groups Canarias Se Agota (Canary Islands Sold Out) and Canarias se exhausta (Canary Islands are exhausted) helped organise demonstrations on April 20 in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and La Palma, under the tagline “The Canary Islands have their limits”.
Tens of thousands of residents protested against mass tourism, holding signs that read “People live here” and “We don’t want to see our island disappear.”
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Protesters in Tenerife said they wanted the island to impose restrictions on tourist entry.
“The authorities must immediately put an end to this corrupt and destructive model that is draining resources and destabilizing the economy,” Antonio Buron, one of the protest leaders, told Reuters.
“The Canaries have their limitations and people need to be patient.”
Residents have also taken to putting up fake “closed due to overcrowding” posters and stickers in popular locations in an attempt to discourage tourists.
Venetians protest against ticket price hike
Venice is another tourist destination that has long struggled with unsustainable tourist numbers.
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Again, it’s the expansion of short-term rentals that’s currently causing the most damage: As of last year, there were more places to stay for tourists in the city than there were residents.
Local residents are facing a decline in rental properties and exorbitant rent prices.
“Every day people with very serious housing problems come to our desk: homeless people (who often have jobs), disabled people living on high floors without elevators, people living in damp and dilapidated homes, even declared unsanitary by the state health system,” says Susanna Polloni of the Venice-based Housing Solidarity Network.
Venice City Council has allocated 27.7 million euros for the renovation and redevelopment of around 500 apartments in the historic center, on the islands and on the mainland.
But around 2,000 properties are reportedly currently vacant and Polloni says they could have been renovated a long time ago if funds had been managed better.
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Activists protested on April 25 against the introduction of a new system that will increase entrance fees for day trippers to 5 euros. They said they wanted a new vision for the city that does not put tourism first.
During the first 11 days of the entrance fee (April 25 to May 5), the city sold 195,000 tickets, raising a total of 977,430 euros – much more than expected, but less than the costs of setting up the online booking system, information campaigns and ticket checks (3 million euros, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera).
Members of the Venice Housing Society Council and Housing Solidarity Network have criticised the city council’s spending on day tripper charges.
“This is a further step towards the ‘museum city’ Venice that we don’t want, a step towards the normalisation of this image, which becomes all the more dangerous the more it penetrates the international imagination,” Polloni said.
“This measure will help make that even more concretely a reality. We are seeing cities empty of residents and souls as tourist monoculture eats away at everything we need for urban life: housing, protected jobs, public services, neighborhood shops, crafts.”
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After the trial period ends, admission fees may increase to 10 euros per day and anyone attempting to enter without a ticket will be subject to a fine of up to 300 euros.
The protesters are just a small part of the many Venetians who believe the housing plan drawn up by the city is inadequate.
The council said revenue from the entrance fees would go towards services that support city residents, such as maintenance, cleaning and reducing the cost of living.
But critics say the measures have done little to ease the influx of tourists, one of the main factors behind Venice’s declining population.
Austrian village erects fence to stop tourists taking selfies
Last year too, residents resorted to extreme measures to make their feelings known.
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The stunning backdrop of the Austrian mountain town of Hallstatt is thought to have inspired the Disney film “Frozen.”
This is why over one million tourists visit the destination every year, many of whom want to take a selfie with the famous view as a backdrop.
Last year, townspeople were so annoyed that they put up a fence to stop visitors from taking photos.
The barrier, which has since been removed following a backlash on social media, was hoped to stop people gathering at the popular selfie spot and causing noise and nuisance to residents.
Activists put up fake warning signs on Mallorca beaches
Last summer, activists placed fake warning signs on beaches across Mallorca to scare off English-speaking tourists.
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Some posters warned of “dangerous jellyfish,” “falling rocks” and sewage-polluted waters.
Others have found beaches closed with “no swimming” signs underneath them, or warned that it will take hours to walk to the sea, even though they’re less than 100 metres away.
But a short text in Catalan written underneath told locals that these warnings were not real.
They explained that “the problem is not falling rocks, it’s mass tourism” and that “the beaches are open except to foreigners and jellyfish.”
