In what has the potential to become an annual event—but not a festival or celebration—groups opposing overtourism are coordinating protests across Spain for June 15th.
The groups, meeting in Barcelona as the Southern Europe Network Against Touristification (SET), have called for more government action and more solutions to the problem of areas adversely impacted by more tourism than they can handle. They say there is an “urgent need to limit the growth of tourism.”
Protests have occurred over the past few years in numbers of places, where tourism is blamed for shortages of housing, rude behavior and changing the culture and feel of cities and beach areas. Spain has seen the largest numbers of protests, including in some cases blocking buses and shooting visitors with water pistols.
In April, there were demonstrations in 40 Spanish cities and towns demanding measures to resolve the country’s housing crisis, and the organizers of the June 15 protests hope to follow that pattern. As well as marches through crowded tourist areas, they are planning picket lines at airports and famous landmarks, blockades for tour buses and occupations of key tourist sites.
