Water pistols at the ready: Irish holidaymakers in firing line for anti-tourism protests

Irish Examiner

13-06-2025

Activists against overtourism are planning protests across Spain, Portugal, and Italy on Sunday, with one group urging people to bring water pistols to the demonstration in Barcelona.
Anger has been growing in southern Europe against what protesters say are excessive levels of tourism that they complain are forcing locals out of affordable accommodation, pushing up living costs and clogging up city centres.
International travel spending in Europe is expected to rise by 11% to €727bn this year, with Spain and France among the countries set to receive record numbers of tourists.
Protests are planned in Barcelona and seven other Spanish cities, including Granada, Palma and Ibiza; Portugal's capital Lisbon; and the Italian cities of Venice, Genova, Palermo, Milan and Naples, according to announcements issued by several of the organising groups.
Organisers, some of whom dismiss the counterargument that tourism brings jobs and prosperity, told Reuters that they wanted to build on scattered protests across Spain last year with the coordinated day of action.
They are joining forces with groups in Portugal and Italy under the umbrella of the SET alliance - Sud d'Europa contra la Turistització, or Southern Europe against Overtourism - Daniel Pardo Rivacoba, spokesperson for Barcelona's Neighbourhoods Assembly for Tourism Degrowth, said.
Some 26m tourists swelled Barcelona's 1.6m population in 2024. A survey conducted by Barcelona last year showed that 31% of residents considered tourism to be damaging, the highest figure on record.
"When they (officials) say that we have to specialise in tourism, they are basically telling us that you have to get poorer so that other people can get richer," Pardo Rivacoba said, complaining of low pay and poor or non-existent contracts.
Graffiti saying "Tourists go home" has become an increasingly common sight across the Mediterranean city and Barcelona's tourism agency was spray painted on Thursday with a message about the planned protest.
The agency said in an open letter published on Friday: "If you hear someone from Barcelona say, 'Tourists, go home', you should know that most of us don't think that way."
It said the city welcomed tourists because they brought diversity, while underscoring the challenges brought by mass tourism and the measures taken to address them, such as a ban on tourist apartments and an ongoing tourism tax.
Barcelona, which depends on tourism for 15% of its GDP, announced last year it would shut all short-term lets by 2028. The mayor said at the time rents had risen by 68% in the past 10 years and the cost of buying a house had risen by 38%, becoming a driver of inequality, especially among young people.
Jaime Rodriguez de Santiago, head of vacation rental platform Airbnb for Iberia, said this week that Barcelona's restrictions scapegoated short-lets, which he said can help redistribute visitor flows to less crowded parts of a city.
Catalonia's Socialist president also announced the expansion of Barcelona's airport this week, saying it was critical for the airport to become a major hub for intercontinental connections, drawing further condemnation from campaigners.
Demonstrators have been urged to bring water pistols to the Barcelona protest, Pardo Rivacoba said, after groups squirted tourists last year in a protest that was criticised by the government and travel companies.
A Catalonia regional police source said the force would guarantee the right to protest and citizens' right to move freely, but declined to comment further.
The protest in Venice looks set to be more low-key, with one organiser saying members would display banners in two locations to denounce the impact of overtourism. "Each city in the SET network organises a demonstration in its own way," they said.
While residents in Rome or Venice have staged anti-tourism protests, in poorer southern Italy a tourism boom is helping make some neighbourhoods safer and bringing much-needed cash.
Reuters