Exclusive: YouGov polling across Europe suggests most countries are sympathetic to protests against overtourism
A third of people in Spain say their local area now has too many international visitors, according to a continent-wide survey that has found most people across Europe are sympathetic to protests against overtourism and back steps to combat it.
The YouGov survey comes after a summer of demonstrations and urgent warnings against the impact of mass tourism from Santorini to the Canary Islands, and measures aimed at reducing it announced from the Cinque Terre to Amsterdam.
The polling in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK found Spain was the country that felt most strongly about the phenomenon, with 32% of respondents saying there were now too many foreign travellers in their area.
Understandable complaint, but also a pretty good problem to have. The proposed solutions are workable and can generate extra revenue while also reducing the number of visitors.
1/3rd of Spaniards: Man wouldn’t it be nice to pay higher taxes so that we don’t have to exist with so many people who have a different culture than us?
It doesn’t have anything to do with living with different cultures, we just want to be able to pay rent
You think that’s gonna be eaiser to fix by chasing out tourists and losing income your city is going to try an regain elsewhere (that means from you), or by reigning in the real estate market and shit like air bnb? I promise you the people raising your rent aren’t tourists.
Tourists are not culture. They’re a zombie plague.
I promise you, if you move there, learn Spanish and start working for a local company, you’ll learn that people there are extremely welcoming to foreigners.
But if all you want is an Instagram shot in the same spot as the other 16 million people who visited just this year a city of 1.6m, and an “authentic” paella (you won’t get an authentic one, trust me, but you’ll be told it is and you’ll keep bragging about it to your colleagues once you return from your vacay, even though the thing you tried tastes nothing like what a paella should taste, digression end), then you bring a negative cultural value. You’re an annoyance, and a one that’s not worth whatever financial benefit it brings.
One could also argue that most of your financial contribution goes to making hotels and landlords richer, and nobody really needs that.
So, I’m with people of Barcelona who paint “fuck you tourists” on their walls.
I’m sure it’s at least that percentage that feels the same in our small mountain town in the southern Appalachian mountains.
Could it be that the world is beautiful and worth exploring, and the ability and means to travel has never been as accessible?
Too many people!
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/15/amsterdam-party-tourists-online-quiz-city-tourism
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/20/thousands-protest-canary-islands-unsustainable-tourism
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/30/mayor-of-santorini-warns-of-overtourism-crisis-greece
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/sep/13/third-spanish-people-local-area-too-many-foreign-tourists-survey
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/23/were-not-anti-tourist-italys-picturesque-villages-struggle-to-cope-with-deluge-of-insta-visitors
