Widespread weekend protests in Italy, Portugal and Spain, have seen local activists use water pistols and “noisy strolls” of suitcases to draw attention to soaring housing costs and the environmental toll of “overtourism”.
In Barcelona, the centre of such recent protests, demonstrators carrying signs reading “Tourists go home” and “Tourism is stealing from us” marched down the city’s Golden Mile, a street flanked by luxury boutiques and high-end hotels, spraying visitors with water.
The main target of anger has been the soaring number of short-term lettings and its effect on availability and affordability in the local rental market. Airbnb insists that it is being scapegoated by protesters who should turn their attention to the hotel industry. The majority of overnight visitors in Europe, it points out, opt to stay in hotels – 63 per cent in 2024 according to EU. Last year travellers stayed in short lets for 715 million nights, an increase of 57 million on 2023. Figures for hotels were up 73 million to 1.9 billion in the same period.
Since lockdowns ended, tourism to European locations such as Barcelona and Athens has rocketed. The golden goose of tourism accounts for more than 12 per cent of Spain’s gross domestic product – protests also took place on its resort islands of Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza.
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In response, the Greek island of Santorini, Venice, and Bruges in Belgium, have imposed new regulations and taxes on their tourism industries. Barcelona plans to ban Airbnb rentals by late 2028 and the Spanish government last month ordered Airbnb to remove nearly 66,000 listings from its platform. Pompeii said it would limit the number of daily visitors to its archaeological site to 20,000 a day. Ibiza and other places are limiting cruise ships.
In the long run, however, the business model of cheap modern mass tourism must begin to accommodate paying staff decently. As part of this, the cost of tourism is likely to rise.
