A protector with a water gun participates on Sunday in opposition to overtorism in Barcelona, Spain.
Pau Venteo/AP
Hide caption
Togle caption
Pau Venteo/AP
Barcelona, Spain – Protesters used water pistol against tourists in Barcelona and in Spanish Island Mallorca on Sunday, as the protesters marched to demand a retirement of an economic model, believing that they are promoting a housing crunch and erasing the character of their governor.
The March was part of the first coordinated attempt by activists related to overturism diseases in the top sites of southern Europe. While many thousands of people ralled in Mallorca at the biggest gathering of the day, hundreds of people gathered in other Spanish cities, as well as in Lisbon, the capital of Venice, Italy and Portugal.
“Squirt gun is to bother tourists a little disturbing,” Andreyu Martinez said in Barcelona after spreading a couple sitting in an outdoor cafe in Barcelona. “Barcelona has been handed over to tourists. This is a fight to Barcelona to give back its inhabitants.”
The 42 -year -old administrative assistant, Martinez, is one of the increasing number of residents who are convinced that tourism has gone far away in the city of 1.7 million people. Barcelona hosted 15.5 million visitors last year, who were eager to see Antony Gowdy’s La Sagrada Familia Basilica and Las Rambalas Pramenade.
Martinez says that their fare has increased by more than 30% as more apartments in their neighborhood hire tourists for short -term stay. He said that tourists have a knock-on influence of traditional shops being replaced by businesses such as souvenir shops, burgers couples and “bubble tea” spots.
“Our life, as the lifelong inhabitants of Barcelona, are ending,” he said. “We are being systematically pushed out.”

Tourists sit in a restaurant as people oppose overturism in Baloric Island in Balorica, Spain on Sunday.
Zone Matu Parra/AP
Hide caption
Togle caption
Zone Matu Parra/AP
About 5,000 people gathered in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, with some totting water guns -“Everywhere you are watching, you are all tourists.” Tourists who were targeted by water explosions laughed it. Balaric Island is a favorite for British and German Sun-Western. It has skyrocketed the cost of housing as houses are converted into a short -term fare market.
Hundreds of people march in Grenada, in southern Spain, and in the northern city San Sebastian, as well as in Ibisa Island.
In Venice, a couple of dozens of protesters called to call a banner for a new hotel bed in the city of Lagoon in front of the recently completed structures, one of the historical centers of a popular tourism destination, where activists say an elderly woman was excluded last year.
‘She is beautiful’
In Barcelona, protesters whistle and said homemade signals, “Another tourist, a low resident.” He said that in Catalan, “Citizen Self-Defense”, and “Tourist Go Home,” have been stated in English, with a water pistol drawing on hotels and hostel doors.
When March stopped in front of a large hostel, there was tension, where a group emptied their water guns on two workers posted in the entrance. They also closed crackers next to the hostel and opened a can of pink smoke. A worker spit on the protesters as they slammed the doors of the hostel.
American tourists Wanda and Bill Dorozensky were running with the main luxury shopping bullet of Barcelona, where the protest began. He received one or two square, but he said that it was actually refreshed at 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28.3 ° C) weather.
“It’s cute, thanks, sweetheart,” Wanda said to Squetar. “I am not going to complain. These people feel something that is very personal, and perhaps destroying some areas (city).”
There were many march with water pistols, which did not set the buyers on fire and instead used to spray themselves to keep them completely cool.
Crack on airbnb
Cities around the world are struggling with how to face a boom in large -scale tourism and short -term fare platforms like AirBNB, but perhaps there is no dissatisfaction in Spain, where protesters in Barcelona had taken a square gun to firing on tourists during a summer for the first time in Barcelona.
Spain also has a confluence of pro-hidding and anti-tourism conflicts, with 48 million inhabitants welcomed a record 94 million international visitors in 2024. When thousands of people marched through the roads of the Spain capital in April, some people said “get AirbnB out of our neighborhood.”

During the protest against mass tourism in Lisbon on Sunday, protesters bang and shout.
Armando Franca/AP
Hide caption
Togle caption
Armando Franca/AP
Spanish officials are trying to show that they are listening to public resentment, while not harming an industry that contributes 12% of GDP.
Last month, the Spain government ordered AirBNB to remove about 66,000 holiday fare from the stage, stating that it violated local rules.
Spain’s Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told Associated Press immediately after action on AirBNB that the tourism sector “could not endanger the constitutional rights of the Spanish people,” which ensures its right to housing and welfare. Economy Minister, Carlos Kuerpo said in a separate interview that the government knows that it would have to deal with unwanted side effects of tourism on a large scale.
The boldest move by Town Hall in Barcelona, which surprised airbnb and other services, which helps to rent tourists by announcing the abolition of all 10,000 short -term fare licenses in the city by 2028 last year.
This spirit was back on Sunday, where people had indicated that “Your AirBNB was my home.”
‘To take housing’
The short -term rental industry, for its share, believes that it is being misbehaved.
Spain and Portugal General Director, Jim Rodriguez de Santiago recently told AP, “I think many of our politicians have blamed their policies in terms of housing and tourism in the last 10, 15, 20 years.”
That argument has either not tricked, or echoing for the common inhabitants of Barcelona.
A teacher in Barcelona, TXEma Ascorsa, does not oppose Airbnb in his home city, he has stopped using it even outside the principle while traveling elsewhere.
“Finally, you realize that it is taking people away from people,” he said.