The end of cheap holidays to Spain? Popular spots join forces to STOP mass tourism
SPAIN’S most popular holiday destinations for Britons have joined forces with protesters Venice and Lisbon to crack down tourists after claiming the vast number of visitors is ruining the areas.
Protesters in Malaga, the Canaries, Palma de Majorca, Malaga, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville, as well as Lisbon in Portugal and Venice in Italy have set up a new pressure group as they face the same problems due to what they describe as tourism saturation.
Their group, the Network of Southern European Cities in response to the Massification of Tourism (SET), said tourists are making life “very difficult” for local residents.
Locals are being pushed out of the housing market as property owners prefer to let their flats or villas out to tourists to get a higher price.
The beaches, public spaces and squares are over-crowded and public transport cannot cope with the masses, they claim.
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They also say there is high pollution from planes, cruise liners and coaches and rubbish is growing out of all proportion.
A spokesman for the new group added: "The tourist sectors of the hospitality and catering trade have the worst working conditions: low salaries, fraud in the number of hours declared in the contracts - when there are any - and outsourcing.”
Objections are also being lodged against the "over-use" of buildings and excessive infrastructures which "disfigure" the landscape.
SET says tourist locations such as Venice, Palma and Barcelona are so far down the line of massification that the problems created are already very serious.
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However, the group considers there is still hope for other venues like Valencia, Madrid and Lisbon that "despite being immersed in rapid and violent processes of tourism, can still aspire to achieve balance through policies of prevention and braking."
The associations are aiming to "raise public awareness" and "press the administrations to achieve a regulation of the tourism economy based on criteria of economic, social and environmental sustainability".
They want limits in the tourism industry and new financial policies to control housing and holiday accommodation.
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A major two-day event is being planned for May 18 and 19 under the banner of "Stop the exploitation of our cities."
Individual associations are also planning protest marches this summer.
In its manifesto, SET says: "We want to extend this fight to other cities and territories, generating a plural and powerful voice that is critical to the current tourism model from Southern Europe."
Many of the venues involved in the new group have already seen mass tourism demonstrations, including attacks on holiday coaches, hotels being stormed, "go home" graffiti and "anti tourist" posters.