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.
“Authorities in the north eastern Spanish city said around 600 people joined the demonstration there, some firing water pistols or setting off colored smoke and putting stickers saying ‘Neighborhood self-defense, tourist go home’ on shop windows and hotels.”
“There were similar demonstrations in other parts of Spain including Ibiza, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, San Sebastian and Granada. Protests in Italy took place in cities including Genoa, Naples, Palermo, Milan and Venice, where locals oppose the construction of two hotels that will add around 1,500 new beds to the city, the organizers told Reuters.”
|| New protests erupt in Spain against overtourism.
➔ The “Southern Europe against Overtourism” alliance leads the charge.
➔ Demonstrators collaborate with groups from Portugal and Italy for a united stand.Voices rise across Southern Europe! #Overtourism #Spain… pic.twitter.com/mrNm6ucOya
— Thomas MORE (@ThomaMore) June 15, 2025
“International travel spending in Europe is expected to rise by 11% to $838 billion this year, with Spain and France among the countries set to receive record numbers of tourists.”
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