Europe’s tourism backlash cools since summer as lawmakers scramble to implement limits

MADRID — European protests of tourists this year have included water gun assaults on cafe diners in Spain, demonstrations against Jeff Bezos in Italy and museum staffing revolts in France, but pressures have eased in many hot spots since the end of the peak summer travel season. This weekend, thousands of American NFL fans in Madrid, who were visiting for the Washington Commanders-Miami Dolphins game, were welcomed with open arms.

The festive atmosphere contrasts with horror stories from frustrated residents and anxious travelers this summer.

Many locals in vacation destinations such as Paris and Madrid have protested the annual waves of tourists from around the globe amid concerns that they are being driven out of their hometowns because of economies that cater too much to big-spending visitors. Meanwhile, the cold shoulder from locals had some vacationers second-guessing their holiday choices.

“Some Americans have been afraid to go to Barcelona because they thought they were going to be shot with a water pistol,” Mark Meader, vice president of the American Society of Travel Advisors, said at a recent summit, according to reports.

Earlier this year, locals in Barcelona drenched groups of tourists with water guns and chanted that they wanted their city back. Residents blamed tourism for skyrocketing rents, congestion and the erosion of the city’s identity. Similar conflicts were reported in Paris and Venice.

Workers at the Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, threatened to strike after they were “overwhelmed” by the number of foreigners.

Misbehaving tourists, such as a British couple barred from Venice for 48 hours for swimming in a canal, haven’t helped matters. Venetian officials said they have fined more than 1,100 visitors for similar behavior since the beginning of the year.

The visitors themselves aren’t typically the problem.

One representative from the Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth in Spain told The Washington Times that the group isn’t “anti-tourism” but rather “anti-touristification.”

No major anti-tourism clashes were reported in Madrid over the weekend despite an influx of thousands of American tourists who crowded bike lanes on foot and shouted at one another across crowded streets.

The wedding of Mr. Bezos and Lauren Sanchez didn’t draw protests because of an influx of A-list celebrities who didn’t respect the local culture, residents said. The locals were instead frustrated by the effect that tourism has had on their quality of life.

“It’s gotten so bad that residents must wait in line even at the grocery store. We can’t take our dogs for a walk without running into four tour groups,” Sara Antonelli, part of the “No Space for Bezos” protest in Venice, told The Times.

Venice hosts 50,000 year-round residents. It had 20 million tourists last year and is expected to surpass that total this year.

“We’re a small city, and we already have more tourists than we can handle,” Ms. Antonelli said. “The last thing we need is for Venice to become a place for destination weddings for multibillionaires.”

Protests throughout the summer featured signs such as “Tourism is stealing from us” and “Leave us alone,” but they didn’t fully explain the situation.

Many European vacation destinations are plagued by a housing crisis exacerbated by the rise of short-term rentals, such as Airbnb. Spain had a 25% growth in the number of rental listings over the past two years, according to a report from Exceltur, a tourism lobbying group.

Home prices have become untenable for many residents in these areas.

“Tourism is driving us out of our homes, villages and neighborhoods,” the Spanish protest group Less Tourism, More Life wrote on its website before a June protest.

Many locals have further expressed concerns about the looming encroachment of a global “monoculture,” as the unique character of cities such as Madrid and Barcelona is stripped away and transformed into something more familiar and palatable for tourists.

They worry about grocery stores being replaced with ice cream shops and hole-in-the-wall favorites becoming chain restaurants.

“It is combined with the gradual loss and displacement of other social and economic activities,” said Angelos Varvarousis, an urban planning expert who splits time between Athens and Barcelona.

As the summer vacation season drew to a close, so did the protests. In Madrid’s case, it helped that the vast majority of fans attending Sunday’s NFL game were European. The league said only 10% of attendees, about 8,000 people, traveled to the game from the U.S.

The rest of the spectators were from the local region. The glitzy, globally minded NFL has been establishing a footprint in Spain over the past year. It has set up a full-time office in Madrid and hosted several community events in the region.

The league said it heard no concerns from locals regarding its presence in the Spanish capital.

This summer, several European countries brainstormed strategies to address tourism concerns.

Icelandic lawmakers announced this month that they are planning a “considerably” higher tourism tax to offset the effects of visitors.

“The sector is a success story, and the authorities want to have a bigger share of the value added,” Johann Vioar Ivarsson, an analyst on the Icelandic tourism board, told Euronews. The country currently collects a $4.76 nightly tax on hotel rooms and a $7.93 charge for cruise ship passengers at Icelandic ports.

In Spain, the federal government has mandated that all short-term rental owners register in a database. The country then ordered Airbnb to remove more than 60,000 listings that failed to cooperate in May.

Local legislators have pursued even more drastic restrictions. Madrid has stopped offering licenses for short-term rentals and increased fines for those who rent out their homes without the proper paperwork. Fees could exceed $100,000.

Officials in Barcelona plan to eliminate short-term rentals, including current properties with accurate paperwork, by 2028.

Concerned property owners have pointed out that many European nations rely on tourism dollars to drive their economies. The industry represented at least 10% of the 2024 gross domestic product in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece.

It wasn’t long ago that many cities dependent on tourism suffered because of the dramatic drop-off from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam and Athens all reported tourism losses of at least 80% in 2020, revealing the vulnerability of their economies. The industry has rebounded, but many European restaurants and hotels that closed during the pandemic crisis never reopened.

“Without tourism, we realized how much of our economy depended on it,” Barcelona Deputy Mayor Janet Sanz said in 2020.

Now an opposition political figure in Spain, Ms. Sanz has been a vocal advocate of policies to help diversify the city’s economy. More Spaniards are joining the cause.

“We are reaching our limit,” said Jordi Valls, the government official who oversees tourism in Barcelona.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.