Protests erupt across southern Europe over mounting pressure from overtourism

New Delhi, Jun 17: In cities famed for their beauty and culture, growing discontent is bubbling over. From Barcelona’s narrow streets to Venice’s canals, locals are pushing back against what they describe as the suffocating impact of mass tourism. Over the weekend, that frustration took the form of coordinated protests across southern Europe, as thousands rallied to denounce the social and economic costs of overtourism.

In Barcelona, the heart of the demonstrations, protesters brandished water guns, released coloured smoke, and plastered shop windows and hotel doors with stickers reading “Neighbourhood self-defence, tourists go home.” Crowds marched under banners warning “Mass tourism kills the city” and chanting “Your holidays, my misery,” according to Reuters.

Organised under the banner of SET (Sud d’Europa contra la Turistització) – a transnational alliance meaning “Southern Europe against Overtourism” in Catalan – activists from Spain, Portugal, and Italy have united around a common message: unchecked tourism is pushing locals out of their homes and eroding the quality of daily life. In cities like Barcelona, where 1.6 million residents share space with an annual influx of 26 million tourists, that burden is acutely felt.

“We know it because we've been living like this for years and all it's brought us is more precariousness, more poverty, and people being forced to leave the city,” one protester told Reuters, summarising the growing anger in Catalonia’s capital.

Barcelona’s city government, which recorded about 600 participants in the demonstration, has acknowledged the problem. Last year, it announced a landmark decision to phase out short-term apartment rentals to tourists by 2028 in an attempt to reclaim housing for locals. But for many, the measures are too slow or too mild.