A Spanish city has taken drastic action to protest the impact of so called over-tourism on their city – as they demand “no more visitors.”
Pamplona in Spain, renowned for its annual bull-running festival that draws around a million global visitors, has seen residents grow increasingly frustrated with the strain tourist accommodation places on the local rental and property market. In May, protestors vented their anger by damaging key boxes outside tourist flats with glue or silicone ahead of the festival. The left-wing coalition group running the city council has now decided not to issue any more licences for tourist flats in the old town, reports the Express.
The council cited “rising house prices, both for sale and rent, the worsening difficulties of [the] commercial sector as well as the loss of identity of the historic centre” as reasons for the ban, which will be implemented later this year. It stated: “When the tourist apartments offered have very high prices compared to the supply of permanent housing, it generates tension mainly in the rental market and substantial increases in housing prices.”
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Joxe Abauerra, of the Basque separatist EH Bildu party, said: “We are taking this measure because we [don’t want] to allow any more tourist flats in the city centre. “”This is an important measure. We support sustainable tourism, and we want to preserve the city centre as a residential area and for local commerce.”
Protests have been erupting across Spain, sparked by residents who are irritated by what they believe is over-tourism impacting their lives. Iconic tourist destinations such as Barcelona, Tenerife, Majorca, and other Balearic Islands have become stages for locals expressing their dissent against heavy tourist influx, with some Brits people reporting hostility while on holiday. In addition, some restaurants have even put banners up claiming that tourists are not welcome, as there seems to be an increasing divide festering across different tourist destinations.
According to a YouGov survey, a third of people in Spain believe their area has too many tourists. The polling in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK found Spain, with 32% of the vote, said there were too many visitors. It was a whopping 48% in Catalonia, whose 1.6 million residents receive about 32 million visitors annually.
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Recent figures show that Majorca has observed a 10 percent dip in tourism, with disenchanted travellers promising not to revisit in response to the vocal anti-mass tourism protests.In an impactful letter addressed to the Majorca Daily Bulletin this Wednesday, a British holidaymaker recounted the hostile encounter they faced during their latest trip to the island. The unnamed British visitor shared in the publication, despite requesting anonymity, how their pregnant daughter endured aggressive chants of “Tourists go home” upon revealing her nationality while caught in traffic.
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