IN PICS: Cities in Spain kick off second summer of overtourism protests
Spain officially kicked off a second summer of overtourism protests this weekend, with demonstrators taking to the streets in cities across the country with slogans such as "boycott Airbnb" and "rich foreign property buyers go to hell".
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.
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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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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