VISITORS NOT WELCOME: Thousands of Citizens Take to the Streets With Signs and Water Pistols in Day of Protest Led by ‘Southern Europe Against Overtourism’ Coalition
For a while, now, the population from high-profile tourist centers have been feeling the pressure of mass arrivals of visitors.
This out-of-control influx has a detrimental effect on the locals’ quality of life, causing housing shortages, price hikes and pollution issues.
So a movement against this reality has taken hold of southern European countries, to the point where the activists have established an international coalition to tackle overtourism.
Today (16), thousands of people took to the streets of cities in southern European countries to demonstrate against overtourism, at times firing water pistols at shops and setting off smoke.
Reuters reported:
“’Your holidays, my misery’, protesters chanted in the streets of Barcelona while holding up banners emblazoned with slogans such as ‘mass tourism kills the city’ and ‘their greed brings us ruin’.
Under the umbrella of the SET alliance – Sud d’Europa contra la Turistització, or Catalan for ‘Southern Europe against Overtourism’ – protesters joined forces with groups in Portugal and Italy, arguing that uncontrolled tourism was sending housing prices soaring and forcing people out of their neighborhoods.”
Take Barcelona, for example: a city of 1.6 million that draws 26 million tourists per year – not sustainable.