A group called Southern Europe Network Against Touristification (SET Network) is organizing protests against overtourism across Europe this summer, with some protestors planning to wield water pistols in symbolic attacks on tourists.
June 15 is the target date for protests in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, including destinations like Venice, Lisbon, Palermo, Barcelona and the Canary Islands. Protest plans were finalized in a recent meeting of activists in Barcelona, which has become a hotbed of pushback against mass tourism.
Protestors are Preparing
Protestors are expected to use a variety of tactics, including marches in tourist districts, picket lines at airports and tourist attractions, blockades of tour buses, “occupation” of tourist sites and a repeat of the water pistol attacks that occurred last summer in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas district.
Planned protest sites include Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica and the Gothic Quarter, Lisbon’s Praca do Comercio plaza and waterfront in Portugal, the famed bridges over the Venice canals and the historic district in Palermo.
SET Network members say the protests are aimed at highlighting the downside of overtourism, including vacation rentals reducing affordable housing stocks for residents, strain on public transit systems, pollution and environmental damage.
Some destinations have taken action to limit the impact of tourism, such as Venice imposing a fee on day visitors to the city and Barcelona banning new hotels and phasing out Airbnbs, but activists say that more is needed.
