Countries in southern and western Europe are bearing the brunt of the global overtourism crisis – and locals are at their wits’ end. The surge in holidaymaker trade in tourist hotspots around the world has become a familiar story over the last few years, with residents not holding back in letting foreigners know they’re not welcome. While the problem, exacerbated by cheaper flights following post-COVID turbulence and lesser-known destinations going viral online, has extended as far as Kyoto and Tokyo in Japan, it appears most concentrated in a certain pocket of Europe.
Regions in the south and west of the continent, including Spain, Italy and Greece, welcomed 70% of the 747 million international visitors who descended on Europe last year, according to the United Nations World Tourism Barometer, dwarfing anywhere else in the world. Protests broke out in cities across the three countries and beyond earlier this month, with tourists in Barcelona targeted with water guns and urged to “go home”.
Holidaymakers from the UK, US, Japan and China reportedly made up the bulk of international tourist trade, with around 30 million travelling to Barcelona and Venice respectively each year.
Local officials have actioned measures to combat the trend, which residents argue has damaged housing markets through a spike in short-term lets, caused job instability and put immense strain on infrastructure.
Barcelona’s government has halted issuing new licenses for tourist accommodation and introduced new rules to cut short-term private lets, while authorities in Vence have introduced a daily fee for day-trippers, a ban on cruise ships and tighter rules on holiday rentals.
A recent report from Which? Travel also highlighted Zante in Greece as one of the less-publicised destinations buckling under heavy footfall, with a 150:1 ratio of visitors to residents.
The smaller holiday spots have been the most vocal about the pressures of rising tourism, with the Balearic and Canary Islands, off the east and southwest of mainland Spain, at the forefront of demonstrations demanding more effective measures.
Although both archipelagos have populations of less than five million people, the number of foreign visitors to each increased to around 15 million in 2024.
As the problem continues to escalate, with anti-tourism action not appearing to dispel holidaymaker enthusiasm, Spain’s tourism board has also launched a bid to redirect them to “lesser-known” parts of the country.
But the various efforts to reduce demand haven’t been quick enough to stop popular regions changing beyond recognition for some locals, with activists in Barcelona warning that their everyday shops have been replaced by souvenir pop-ups and international chains in a prioritisation of tourists above residents.
Barcelona and Athens-based academic and urban planner Angelos Varvarousis also warned that the growing tide of foreign visitors threatened to impose a “monoculture” on European hotspots.
He told AP News that the shift was “combined with the gradual loss and displacement of other social and economic activities”.