Latest news with #ABDT
Local Spain
16-06-2025
- Local Spain
IN PICS: Cities in Spain kick off second summer of overtourism protests
Thousands of protestors defied heatwave warnings and took to the streets of cities across Spain this weekend, kick-starting a second successive summer of anti-tourism demonstrations. This follows anti-tourism activism across the country last year, with some of the more extreme tactics gaining international headlines. There have also been protests in the Canaries and the Catalan capital this spring. On Sunday, locals protested in Barcelona, Granada, San Sebastián and Palma de Mallorca, joining concerned residents from fifteen other European cities. In Spain, the biggest demonstration was held on the Balearic Islands when thousands in Palma de Mallorca ignored an orange weather alert for temperatures of up to 39 degrees to protest. Led by the Menys Turisme Més Vida platform (Less Tourism More Life), as many as 8,000 locals, according to police estimates, protested against the negative impacts of unregulated tourism in the regional capital and the Balearic Islands more widely, especially during the high season. Demonstrators take part in a protest against mass tourism and housing prices in Palma de Mallorca, on the Balearic island of Mallorca on June 15, 2025. (Photo by JAIME REINA / AFP) 'We are here to have a decent life, to stop the touristification of cities and to set limits,' said Jaume Pujol, spokesperson for the platform, highlighting the need for 'tourism de-growth' and the massive influx of tourists driving locals out of their neighbourhoods and increasing housing prices. With banners in Catalan and English — including messages such as 'Rich foreign property buyers go to hell' — the organisers demanded measures such as banning short-term holiday rental accommodation, reducing the number of flights to the islands and maintaining a moratorium on mega-cruise ships. Demonstrators hold signs reading 'Rich foreign property buyers go to hell' during a protest against mass tourism and housing prices in Palma de Mallorca, on the Balearic island of Mallorca on June 15, 2025. (Photo by JAIME REINA / AFP) In San Sebastián, around fifty groups and associations took to the streets to express their unhappiness with what they call a 'housing emergency' affecting the Basque city due to the proliferation of tourist flats and increase in second homes. Around 300 people took part in a demonstration under the slogan: 'We want to live here. Stop touristification.' Barcelona residents held a demonstration organised by the Assembly of Neighbourhoods for Tourism Decrease (ABDT) also calling for measures to slow tourism growth in the Catalan capital. 'Tourism is stealing our bread, our homes and our future,' protestors chanted. Catalan regional police officers (Mossos d'Esquadra) block protesters from advancing toward the Sagrada Familia Basilica during a demonstration against mass tourism in Barcelona, on June 15, 2025. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP) Around 600 people turned out, according to the local police, a significantly smaller event than the 2024 protest. Organisers had called on demonstrators to prepare themselves and bring water pistols along, a reference to the controversial tactics last summer. Reports from Spanish daily El País suggest some marchers did use water pistols on Sunday, as well as targeting a Louis Vuitton shop window to protest a recent fashion show in Park Güell. Smoke bombs were also thrown and some protestors graffitied the building with messages in support of Palestine. Tourists watch from inside a hotel as a protester tapes over the windows during a demonstration against mass tourism in Barcelona, on June 15, 2025. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP) Spain, which received 94 million visitors in 2024, saw a long series of demonstrations throughout last summer, including in major capitals and tourism destinations such as Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Granada, the Balearic and Canary Islands, as well as Barcelona. In Spain's second city, the first major protest took place in July 2024 and made international headlines when demonstrators sprayed tourists with water pistols. The incident caused some in Spain to consider the effectiveness of such direct methods and the long-term impact it could have on the tourism industry, a sector that contributes roughly 12 percent to the country's GDP.
Local Spain
13-06-2025
- Local Spain
'Bring your water pistols': Barcelona braces for tourism demo
Spain's anti-protest season is ready to restart this weekend, with demonstrators in Barcelona preparing to take to the streets with water pistols (again) in the Catalan capital. In 2024, protestors in Spain's second city gained international news coverage when a small group of them sprayed tourists with water pistols. The demonstration was part of a wider, year-long wave of anti-tourism protests across Spain to demand greater controls on the tourism industry and, in particular, protest its inflationary impact on the housing market. Average rents in Spain's major cities, islands and coastal resorts have skyrocketed in the post-pandemic period, with a surge in the number of short-term tourist accommodation rental platforms like Airbnb blamed by many. Now, on Saturday June 15th, the Assembly of Neighbourhoods for Tourism Degrowth (ABDT) has called for a new demonstration in Barcelona under the slogan: 'Tourism is stealing our bread, our homes and our future: we defend the city, tourism degrowth NOW!'. More than 100 organisations from across the country have already signed the manifesto. The march will start at 12 noon on Sunday in the Jardinets de Gràcia, and then move on to city centre spots such as Passeig de Gràcia and Diagonal. Authorities are recommending that people in the city use public transport while the march is on. Similar protests will take place in other Spanish cities such as Palma, San Sebastián, Granada and Ibiza, and there will also be demos overseas in cities such as Lisbon, Naples, Venice and Naples, organised by The Southern Europe Network Against Touristification (SET). Reports in the Spanish press suggest that the aim is to disrupt 'tourist routines' and demand policies to curb what they describe as an 'economic monoculture that is driving out residents.' The organising groups also includes trade unions representing workers in the tourism sector and environmental groups such as Ecologistas en Acción. Organisers are inviting demonstrators to bring water pistols and toys, a direct reference to an anti-mass tourism demonstration carried out last year on the city's Ramblas boulevard, where some protesters sprayed holidaymakers with water as they sat on restaurant terraces. Protesters in Barcelona recently held up a bus covered it with a large banner reading 'Let's put out the tourist fire. June 15th – Day of struggle against touristification', looking ahead to the protest this weekend. During the series of protests in 2024, some in Spain and around the world wondered if demonstrations were becoming overly aggressive and demonising tourists themselves as opposed to the tourist industry and gentrification more generally.
