On July 6, protesters marched through popular tourist spots in Barcelona, Spain, spraying water on tourists, shouting: "Tourists go home."
In mid-July, thousands of protesters in Mallorca, Spain's top international tourist island, claimed that overtourism was impoverishing local workers and enriching only a few.
Experts say the core issue of the protests is rising rents and housing prices, which have left many people unable to buy homes or spending more money to rent.
Carlos Ramirez, a primary school teacher in Barcelona, says he is paid a “decent” salary by the state and is saving to buy a house. But skyrocketing property prices in the city have him worried. The only way to live in Barcelona these days is to rent a house with three or four other people.
Like other residents of southern Europe, where cities are also popular summer destinations, Ramirez blames rising housing prices on mass tourism. It is becoming harder for people, especially young people, to buy a home as more and more tourists flock to them.
In Barcelona, rents have risen 68% in the past decade, according to the city’s mayor, Jaume Collboni. Other European cities have seen similar effects. Fed up with the situation, residents are taking extreme measures, including protests to evict tenants and even hunger strikes.
Ramirez said the protests were effective because many travel companies subsequently warned customers against visiting Spain.
Antje Martins, a sustainable tourism expert at the University of Queensland in Australia, said the protests would affect visitors’ decisions to travel. Barcelona has a bad reputation among tourists, so they are reluctant to visit because they are afraid.
The CEO of the European Tourism Commission, Eduardo Santander, said the protests in Barcelona do not reflect the reality of Spain or the continent as a whole. Marins said the protests were not a “conflict between tourists and residents” but rather a reflection of unsustainable tourism management. She believes people are protesting because they are not satisfied and are not receiving any benefits from tourism.
Ramirez agrees. He says the protests are about pressuring the government to change its policies, not blaming tourists.
Residents in Venice, Italy, also say mass tourism has caused health care services to close, neighborhood restaurants to be replaced by souvenir shops, and house prices to skyrocket.
Rising housing prices aren’t the only reason. Ramirez says tourists’ lack of respect for locals also plays a role. A young tourist kissed and made offensive gestures toward a statue of Bacchus, the god of wine, in Florence, Italy. In 2023, another tourist was charged with damaging an ancient statue at Florence’s 16th-century Neptune Fountain. That same year, at another Italian destination, a group of tourists deliberately toppled a historically and culturally significant statue in a villa they were renting. Similar incidents have occurred elsewhere.
Ramirez accused tourists of deliberately doing things they could not do in their own country, which offended locals.
Sebastian Zenker, a professor of tourism at Copenhagen Business School, said that because of these tourist behaviors, many cities have launched programs to discourage tourism. In 2023, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, announced a "Stay Away" campaign to show that drunk and rowdy tourists are not welcome.
But Zenker also points out the downside of discouraging mass tourism. If cities focus on raising prices to attract wealthy visitors, the number of visitors will decrease but will increase inflation at the destination.
The main solution is to use the money earned from tourists to invest back into the destination itself, develop sustainable tourism, and improve the living standards of local people.
“The protests will continue until they get justice,” Zenker said.
TH (according to VnExpress)Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/ly-do-bieu-tinh-duoi-khach-o-chau-au-lan-rong-388908.html
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