Visitors to Crowded Cities May Face Protests This Summer

Visitors to some areas of the world this summer should be prepared for less than warm welcomes.

Anti-tourism protesters in Mallorca, Spain say they’ll continue their fight against the hordes of tourists who’ve descended over the past few years.

A message on the Facebook page of the Spanish group Arran Paisos Catalans said they feel that “the tourism model of Mallorca and the whole of the Catalan countries is one of the main problems we suffer as a society.”

According to a story last week on The Sun’s website in Britain, the group feels Mallorca and other popular destinations “are totally saturated in the summer months, providing problems for locals including packed beaches, traffic jams, anti-social behaviour, dirt and noise.”

Protesters set fires near boats in Mallorca last year and also tossed confetti at visitors, some of whom thought they were under a more serious attack.

Incidents of a more destructive nature took place in Barcelona last year, where visitors had the tires of their cars slashed. Other areas of Spain have seen tourist buses pelted with eggs.

Protesters recently damaged tourism headquarters in the Spanish city of Bilbao, covering the building with red paint and anti-tourism slogans. Barcelona residents who feel tourists are taking over the city unfurled banners and placards at a city beach last weekend.

Last week, radicals carrying flare guns were seen targeting diners at a Marina restaurant in Palma, screaming “go home” and a number of public spaces have also been defaced with stickers carrying the slogans “tourism kills the city" and “tourists go home”.

Spain has seen a good deal of protest. But concerns about over-tourism stretch all across Europe, from Amsterdam to Italy to Croatia.

Dubrovnik’s mayor has talked about limiting the number of people who can access the city on any given day, an idea also floated by Barcelona officials. Venice residents recently have demonstrated against rising rents and pollution from cruise ships, while concerns also have been expressed about the number of young people misbehaving every summer in Amsterdam and the increasing number of visitors in general

"It hurts the character of the city, Amsterdam city council member Udo Kock said in a story posted last December at dw.com. “There are really neighbourhoods where you simply see that the people that used to live there don't want to live there anymore.”

Valeria Duflot, who co-founded the group Venezia Autentica (Authentic Venice), was recently quoted as saying the city “is being turned into a theme park and locals and visitors alike resent this fact.”

Lest we think this is purely a European problem, the mayor of Whistler last year was critical of visitors who come up from the city and don’t show proper respect for the sensitive nature and ecology of the mountains.

“We don’t necessarily want people who are coming up for a day, packing a bag with their lunch in it, and not really appreciating the mountain culture that we have,” Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden told the CBC.

Hand-wringing from a mayor is a far cry from slashing tires, but it does show the down side of the steady increase in world tourism numbers. Global tourism numbers jump every year, with thousands of airplanes criss-crossing the planet every day and sending hordes of camera-toting, selfie-snapping visitors to popular cities and churches and already crowded markets.

Destinations and cities around the world want tourists to come and fill the coffers of local hotels and businesses, which provide needed jobs. But sometimes it’s too much.

In a story posted on the CBC’s website in December, the president and CEO of Destination B.C., Marsha Walden, said the province wants to encourage tourists to visit yet it needs to mitigate their impact on the environment and on local residents.

"Occasionally, you will see some of the Whistler trails that are bogged down by over-enthusiastic locals as well as tourists," she said. "When a big cruise ship comes into downtown Victoria, you feel the crush of people in the downtown core."