In Barcelona, tourists were shot with water pistols. But it will get worse
Since so much of the GDP of many countries is helped by tourists, one might assume that everyone would just pet the goose that lays so many golden eggs. That’s how it has been so far. This year, a contrary trend has emerged. More and more local residents are simply fed up with tourists. And this is no longer a side chat, a complaint between neighbors about troublesome tenants in an apartment rented out on a short-term basis in their tenement house. This is open rebellion.
“I love my homes, but I increasingly hate Saint-Tropez, where it is impossible to live. It is full of tourists and social gatherings that scare me,” said Brigitte Bardot in an interview in 2014. The famous actress has been an icon of this city since she appeared in the film “God Created Woman,” which was filmed there. In 1958, she bought a house there and has been a regular visitor ever since. Before her eyes, the small fishing town of 4,000 people was transformed into one of the most popular resorts on the French Riviera, a global icon of relaxation, visited by several million people every year. A global success to which Bardot contributed greatly. However, this success became, in her eyes, the equivalent of saying that you can die by your own gun.
More and more people think the same. 2024 is the first year when the number of travelers is practically the same as before the pandemic. The tourism industry has finally filled the gap created by subsequent quarantines, restrictions and COVID restrictions. But this year, the tourism boom is being met with a completely different reaction than before the coronavirus. Until 2020, only the profits brought by travelers were counted. Today, tourism is increasingly generating protests. More and more cities and regions are openly demonstrating against the arrival of crowds of visitors. They have stopped seeing them as a source of easy and quick money, they look rather at the Huns destroying and plundering everything beautiful and valuable. How will this anti-tourism movement change the way Westerners spend their holidays?
