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Tourists out – toxic tourism incites city guerillas
Inhabitants from Venice to Amsterdam and in Berlin and Barcelona are making their anti-tourism feelings known.
At the World Travel Market this week a challenging topic was discussed. Local communities in many top level tourism destinations are raising their voices and taking action against mass tourism on their doorsteps.
Barcelona’s beachfront neighbourhood of La Barceloneta was alive with protests recently when hundreds of local people joined together to demonstrate against tourism in the area.
Locals feel that the current model of tourism that Barcelona city council is promoting is not compatible with the daily life of those who have lived in the area for years.
And in Berlin the story is a little more colourful, actions include spraying tourists with water – Tourists, say agitated locals, are turning Berlin into an overpriced playground in which the natives can no longer afford to live and work.
Whilst the city of Venice, says the Venice Times, "will receive a real mass tourism ‘assault’. Visitors will sit on the steps of the century-old buildings and bridges, eating, trashing and not showing the respect these buildings deserve."
"Walking on the small narrow streets without left and right side order, like in other cities, making the traffic impossible to stand, offering a truly claustrophobic experience."
Even chilled-out Amsterdammers are joining in protest, the Director General of the Rijksmuseum, Wim Pijbes – recently called for a ‘Delta Plan Amsterdam Tourist’ "Anyone who daily visits our city, sees the limits of growth in recent years – the litter, the irritations, the rows, ambulatory street trading, illegal short-stay accommodation – Amsterdam is dirty, filthy and full."
The problem for the travel industry is what to do. Too many tourists may be good for business in the short term but long term they represent a major danger for the industry.
Even though tourist-hating has been a pleasant socially-divisive activity for some centuries now, the massive expansion of mass tourism, fuelled by cheap flights has placed extreme pressures on crowded destinations.
Valere Tjolle
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