Over tourism- are you re thinking your holidays

[TheGander]

Have been following the news re demonstrations against tourism in Spain. I’ve been going there on holiday on an off for years. The demos resonate with me as I feel tourism has intensified and accelerated in recent years, partly boosted by the internets ability to create eg air bnb, instagram tourism where people converge on beauty spots for the pics, social media creating popular destinations via sites such as tripadvisor etc. I can read Spanish so I’ve looked at articles in local press. Some destinations I used to love just aren’t enjoyable any more eg Cadiz which is now overrun by cruise ships , ait bnbs and the locals are fed up and going on demos about it. I’m reassessing where to go on holiday as a result. Anyone else?

Yes, I’ll stick with Greece now.

No

I live in one of those over touristed Spanish cities and all my friends complain about it in the same conversation as they’re sharing their holiday plans to over overcrowded destinations, so don’t worry too much OP!

The local councils of affected cities do need to make changes and manage things better.

It's a double edge sword.

On one side you have cheap tourism, and on the other you have local people wanting to carve ot a living from tourism.
The two just don't go together!

My personal experience with Greece v Spain.whe it comes to hospitality in restaurants:
Greece always given free water ... then happily ordered an extra drink or something from the wine or cocktail list.
Spending more money!!
Spain, they charged for the water and I didn't bother to order anything else. Definitely saved some money there.

A shame really, but if you change me for a plastic bottle of water, instead of giving me a jug then I think you don't care, so why should I?

I dont really like going anywhere crowded anyway (which is almost impossible nowadays) so I try to avoid peak times when possible (I do this with my food shops etc too - I just don't like being around crowds if I can help it).

Santorini?

I agree that Spanish government and councils need to take action eg on overbuilding of hotels and holiday homes especially around the coastline. @DancefloorAcrobatics one if the problems is people who don’t benefit from tourism are being negatively impacted for example because every other apartment in their block is now a noisy air bnb, their neighbourhood is losing its identity, their kids can’t afford to live locally. Personally I don’t want to contribute this so I’m staying away / only staying in hotels.

We were planning a trip to Madrid in October. Haven't booked anything yet. Am tempted to change my mind now and go somewhere else. I don't want any hassle. Just a nice holiday

It just needs better management in terms of affordable housing for residents. However, having been to two places this year that cruise ship destinations I have decided I won’t ever cruise. 4000 people turn up to tiny towns, stay for a few hours, many on organised tours by the cruise company, queuing to walk down the street-then they bugger off. Don’t cause housing issues but their money would be better spent locally.

Whilst I have sympathy for the residents of Barcelona and Venice, I'm sure they'd enjoy a visit to London, Windsor or Bourton -on- the Water, which are also suffering.

I do.consider this, yes, mainly because I live in a part of the UK which both benefits and suffers from the effects of tourism. We have whole streets of holiday homes, and villages that are full to the bursting in summer and are deserted in winter. The houses are expensive and so locals can't afford them, especially as most work here is seasonal. I don't want to add to a situation like that when I go on holiday, so I avoid airbnbs and chain hotels, and I try to spend money in locally owned businesses and not national chains.

We have this in spades in Cornwall. Every summer, the population triples causing traffic jams, queues, litter and water stress throughout the county. We welcome the visitors but there's a limit to what the infrastructure can take before it falls over. Airbnb and pop-up camping has made it worse.

I find this very difficult. We love travelling but I hate feeling like I'm helping to destroy the very place I came to see. Tourism done well can enliven an area and bring a lot of prosperity. (Eg Switzerland where facilities enable both swiss and foreigners to ride cable cars to access hiking etc).

As a family we don't fly for holidays owing to CO2 emissions. We travel by train and public transport because we enjoy it and it's also much less likely to be affecting locals than eg parking a car somewhere. We don't cruise or use air b&b because it's too detrimental to the places we visit.

Personally I'm in favour of tourist taxes. I want to go to places and not feel like I have to square it ethically by doing some weird thing I've had to research and guess whether it's doing any good. Air travel should be taxed in a way that's reflective of how much damage it does, and similarly cruise ships should pay their way properly including paying duty on alcohol, local tourism taxes and fuel according to how much it pollutes.

Air B&B should be regulated in an equivalent way to hotels so that we can all choose the type of accommodation that suits us without putting locals out on the streets. And by making accommodation providers register, we can all be confident the local authorities have charged what is necessary to cover bins, water, roads and local policing.

I live in Cornwall, so have seen the other side of this too, and really sympathise.

We were planning to take DD abroad for the first time this year, were considering mallorca or similar, but absolutely won't be going now. I'm not risking my 7yo being afraid if we get caught up in something like the people shooting tourists with water pistols in the street.

I experienced something similar as a young adult in Newquay and it was frightening even without a language barrier - at the time we didn't know what we were being shot with and were scared it could be bleach etc.

yes. I went to Spain this year for the first time in more than ten years. Barcelona was really overcrowded. Queue management systems for Parque Guell which used to be nearly empty and magical. We were staying in a publicly owned site and doing respectful cultural stuff but so was everyone else and it was just horrid. Saw graffiti saying tourists out so I will not go again.

A shame really, but if you change me for a plastic bottle of water, instead of giving me a jug then I think you don't care, so why should I?

@DancefloorAcrobatics what’s an actual shame is that you don’t seem to know that tap water isn’t drinkable in Spain.

It’s technically drinkable, as in it won’t kill you because it’s been treated, but especially on the coasts and islands it is not recommended to drink for health reasons - it’s incredibly hard water and the chemical treatment too strong for it to be drank on a regular basis, plus it tastes horrible. Barely any Spanish people drink tap water, with the exception of some central regions where the water is slightly better.

Next time, before you judge Spanish hospitality and being charged for water, perhaps think that the restaurant has to pay for the bottles that they would decant into your free jugs. Hence them charging you for it. They are not allowed to just give you tap water.

This is exactly the tourist attitude that bothers some people, and rightly so. You’re not expected to know everything about the local country, but you shouldn’t pass on judgment without even bothering to research why certain customs are different than your own. Your post tells me you are the one that actually doesn’t care for how things are done over there.

@Stopsnowing im sorry to read that. I wouldn’t go back to Barcelona even as a Spanish speaker, except maybe in winter. @TheABC im sad about how overcrowded Cornwall has become and I really feel for the local people. Again I won’t be going there except in winter. However @User050105 i think Madrid might be ok, it doesn’t attract quite as many tourists as Barcelona and obviously avoids the cruise ships. I went there in late September a few years ago and it was lovely. I think cruise ships are a horrible blight ( sorry to any cruisers on here). Environmentally awful and as @Thelondonone says the tourists off the ships don’t even spend much once off the boats. I went to Dubrovnik a few years ago and it was just awful, thousands and thousands of people corralled into the old town in the heat , everything super expensive ( more than London) as local economy just reliant on tourism now.

Yes, it's put me off Spain. There are lots of lovely places to go to in Europe. We went to Billund in Denmark last year. It's touristy and I'm sure we outnumber locals. But at least the locals aren't protesting.

I've always wanted to go to santorini, 20+ years, but it looks awful now with those cruise ships invading. No chance I'll go now

@Figgygal same here. Some places are sadly just too beautiful to resist over tourism and retain their identity. The place in south of France I spent my childhood holidays in is too far gone, I’d never holiday there again.

Me too, cruise ships do very little for the local economy and just ruin the experience for other tourists.
We went to Kotor and cruise ships were so loud every day. Their announcements and music evhoing around the harbour

Sounds awful @bruffin . We went to Kotor 18 years ago and it was very peaceful.

Great post!

I'll report back in a couple of months. I'll be on one of those cruise ships in Cadiz! Obviously unpopular on here though.

I do agree that many places, London included, are too overrun with tourists. That's not the tourists' fault though. The local governments are the ones that have allowed hotels to be built, or people to buy homes for use as AirBnBs. If the protests are aiming their ire at them, I'd not have a problem with it and would definitely understand it. Aiming their ire at the tourists themselves is not fair.

Yes I'd like to see cruise ships banned. They bring very little to the local community and are terrible environmentally. They are also a real blot on the landscape.