Protesters against overtourism take to the streets of southern Europe

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Protesters against overtourism take to the streets of southern Europe

Guillermo Martinez, Ana Cantero and Giulio Piovaccari
Sun, June 15, 2025 at 10:58 AM EDT2 min read

BARCELONA/MADRID (Reuters) -Thousands of people took to the streets of cities in southern Europe on Sunday to demonstrate against overtourism, firing water pistols at shop windows and setting off smoke in Barcelona, where the main protest took place.

"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 neighbourhoods.

Barcelona, a city of 1.6 million, drew 26 million tourists last year.

Authorities in the north eastern Spanish city said around 600 people joined the demonstration there, some firing water pistols or setting off coloured smoke and putting stickers saying 'Neighbourhood self-defence, tourist go home' on shop windows and hotels.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/protesters-against-overtourism-streets-southern-145814870.html

[Eugene]

1. Spaniards turn water guns on visitors in Barcelona and Mallorca to protest mass tourism

Spaniards turn water guns on visitors in Barcelona and Mallorca to protest mass tourism (Associated Press)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Protesters used water guns against unsuspecting tourists in Barcelona and on the Spanish island of Mallorca on Sunday as demonstrators marched to demand a rethink of an economic model they believe is fueling a housing crunch and erasing the character of their hometowns.

The marches were part of the first coordinated effort by activists concerned with the ills of overtourism across southern Europe's top destinations. While several thousands rallied in Mallorca in the biggest gathering of the day, hundreds more gathered in other Spanish cities, as well as in Venice, Italy, and Portugal's capital, Lisbon.

“The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,” Andreu Martínez said in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an outdoor café. “Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/spaniards-packing-water-pistols-blame-050126792.html

[SleeplessinSoCal]

2. Fascinating issue.

Never thought about it before.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. I'm not surprised. Out of control tourism seems to be everywhere, take a look at NYC, Miami, Yellowstone,

and other landmarks, tourist spots. The sheer number of tourists is overwhelming. We don't even go to attractions in STLMO (Zoo, Botanical Gardens, etc.) because of the sheer numbers of people. At least in the Gardens, they do have where they're open one evening during the workweek, so as to not have it too crazy w/ tourists. I used to walk in the Gardens until it got too mobbed, too much hassle to go, park, etc.

[patphil]

4. Wow! New York City had 64 million tourists in 2024.

That's about 175,000 per day, while Barcelona had about 71,000 a day.
Of course NYC is a lot bigger, and has about 5 times the population, so I can see where the residents of Barcelona might feel a bit overwhelmed.

https://emoryeconomicsreview.org/articles/2025/2/4/the-economics-of-tourism-in-barcelona


https://roadgenius.com/statistics/tourism/usa/new-york/

[IbogaProject]

6. The vast majority only visit a small subset of NYC

So their impact is similar to what these European cities are facing. The big issue with the tourists is they love to Jay Walk and the new avenue traffic light pattern of giving cross town pedestrians a head start also gives the tourists an ability to keep going up or downtown and effectively block intersections. This is most troublesome on 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Avenues in Midtown.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Tourists overrun beautiful places and make them ugly.

[Lonestarblue]

7. Large cruise ships are a huge part of the problem in cities like Barcelona.

The all dock about the same time in the morning, passengers disembark and all head to the same main sites with tour guides. There can be as many as 30,000 people all descending on the same ares at once. They buy trinkets, visit prearranged museums and sites, then head back to the ship. Most spend no money in restaurants or local non-tourist businesses but leave behind mountains of trash for the cities to deal with.

I was once in Venice with five behemoth ships in port. It was absolutely miserable. We were not on a ship so went into a restaurant for lunch. We essentially had the restaurant to ourselves with only one other table occupied. I understand why business owners and locals complain because locals will not fight pushy crowds to shop or eat at restaurants.

Barcelona and other cities with over-tourism should severely limit the number of cruise ships per day. Venice has levied an extra charge, but I don’t think it has done much good because it’s very low.

And then there’s the AirB&B nightmare of taking apartments out of long-term rentals and turning them into short-term rentals for tourists, driving up prices on remaining rental stock.