Coordinated Protests Against Tourism: Spain, Portugal, And Italy

Across southern Europe, activists have coordinated the protests against overtourism in cities like Barcelona, Lisbon, and Venice. They argue that excessive tourism drives up living costs, displaces locals, and degrades city centres. While some welcome the economic benefits, others decry low wages and poor working conditions, leading to calls for tourism growth and stricter regulations.

Activists against overtourism plan 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, which they complain are forcing locals out of affordable accommodation, increasing living costs, and clogging city centres.

International travel spending in Europe is expected to rise by 11 per cent to $838 billion this year, with Spain and France set to receive record numbers of tourists. According to announcements issued by many of the organising groups, 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, Mila, and Naples. 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 Turisitzacio or Southern Europe against Overtourism-Daniel Pardo Rivacoba, spokesperson for Barcelona's Neighbourhoods Assembly for Tourism Degrowth, said.

Some 26 million tourists swelled Barcelona's 1.6 million population in 2024. A survey conducted by Barcelona last year showed that 31 per cent of residents considered tourism damaging, the highest figure on record.

"When they say that we have to specialise in tourism, they are telling us that we have to get poorer so that other people can get richer," Pardo Rivacoba said, complaining of low pay and poor or non-existent contracts.

ANTI-TOURIST GRAFFITI

Graffiti saying "Tourists go home" has become an increasingly common sight across the Mediterranean. Barcelona's tourism agency was spray-painted on Thursday with a message about the planned protest. In an open letter published on Friday, the agency said, "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 per cent of its GDP, announced last year it would shut all short-term lets by 2028. The mayor said at the time that the number of homes had risen by 38 per cent, 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 the airport needed to become a central hub for international 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 that members would display banners in two locations to denounce the impact of over-tourism. "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.

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