European Anti-Tourism Groups Plan June 15 Disruptions

Travelers to Europe, mark their calendars (and bring their rain). On June 15, activist groups throughout southern Europe plan to organize protests against tourism. Althegh, the precise form of these manifestations has not decided to lose, it is a rather sure bet that water weapons will be inolored.

Last weekend in Barcelona, ​​some 120 representatives of Venice; Lisbon; Palermo, Italy; and a boxes other cities joined the leaders of the South European Network against tourist to ask for a coordinated action day to raise awareness about what they called “the urgent need to limit tourism growth.” The tactics discussed included marches, pickets at airports, obstructing the entry of tourists to historical sites and in blocking tourist bus.

Driven by the increase in rentals, housing scarcity, pollution and overpopulated public transport, the call indicates a continuation, and a possible climbing, of the demonstrations that exploded in Europe in 2024.

In a protest along the famous boulevard of the Ramblas of Barcelona last July, a handful or participants took water guns and tourists from bees. Tactics attracted the attention of global media, so, this time, activists have adopted toys as an effective symbol of their resistance.

In Barcelona, ​​where the municipal government has task measures to reduce the impact of aboutism (the city received 15.5 million tourists in 2024), such as curbing the construction of new hotels and prohibiting Airbnb after 2028, cars greeted.

“It is unfortunate that the global movements against tourism chose to announce their proposals in Barcelona, ​​when Barcelona is the city that is most for sustainable urban tourism,” said Mateu Hernández, general director of Tourism of Barcelona.

Since international trips are expected to increase this year, it is likely that the summer of 2025 will see other protests. Already, in the Canary Islands, a demonstration against tourism is scheduled for May 18, and the organizers suggest that they will go beyond the type of marches that brought 60,000 to the streets last year to also include the sites.

The participants in the Barcelona workshops crowned their meeting with their own symbolic protest. On Sunday morning, the activists, some with wandering water weapons, with outside the Familia Church of Sagrada (the most popular tourist attraction in the city), surrounded a tourist bus full of passengers and hung a banner that announced the manifestations of June 15.

“We don’t want to go to anyone,” said Elena Boschi, English teacher and Genoa activist, Italy. “We just want to take into account the impact that their presence is having in these places and the people who live in them.”

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