English Corner

Residents in Spain protests againts Airbnb tourism. Photo: Youtube.

How do we deal with the anti-tourism backlash affecting the tourism industry?

Ben West

Protests by locals against tourists flocking to their cities and resorts have increasingly occurred this year. Is this a growing threat to the travel industry?

In recent months there has been growing unease worldwide at the number of tourists flooding into popular destinations. Ones including Majorca, San Sebastian, Hong Kong, the UK’s Isle of Skye and Valencia have seen locals protest, complaining that throngs of foreigners are ruining things for people who live there year round. They’re not just protesting against the crowds flooding into city centres, onto roads and beaches, and the drunkenness and damage to the environment, but the lack of facilities for local people as many shops and so much else is solely geared to tourists.

There’s the disruption to local property markets holiday accommodation like Airbnb causes, pushing up rents and forcing locals out. Locals often don’t see any improvements revenues from tourism could bring: that’s unsurprising, considering that often as little as 5 to 10% of the money tourists spend remains in the destinations they visit.

The unease is not surprising: Venice, for example, expects around 20 million tourists this year - compared with just 55,000 residents, (down from 175,000 after World War II). This has resulted in few non-tourist shops and just two cinemas in the whole city. Thousands of Venetians took to the streets in protest against mass tourism this summer.

Tourists go home

The little Greek island of Santorini expects 2 million tourists this year and is at breaking point according to locals.

In Barcelona anti-tourism group Arran vandalised tourist bikes and a bus, slashing tyres and daubing slogans like ‘tourists go home’, while in Mallorca the group burst into restaurants and boats in the harbour carrying banners saying ‘tourism is killing Mallorca’. With widespread delays at airports due to strikes, booking system meltdowns, increased security checks and struggles with full capacity, overcrowded departure lounges, heatwaves and droughts, and terrorism worries, there are already plenty of reasons why tourists may wish to ditch plans to go on holiday without an added fear of being made unwelcome.

Inevitably, this is a concern for many in the travel industry as well as governments counting on tourism to provide jobs, income and a boost to their economies.

Cheaper air travel, greater global prosperity and increased tourism provision

And left unchecked it is only going to get worse: worldwide, people make more than a billion foreign trips each year, double the number 20 years ago. During the Cold War that figure was just 25 million. Tourism arrivals are expected to surpass 1.8 billion annually by 2030.

Cheaper air travel, greater global prosperity and increased tourism provision means that the number of tourists is increasing all the time.

The largest cause of increased tourism comes from China: Chinese residents have only been permitted to travel abroad for the last 20 years but now the country provides the greatest number of travellers worldwide. In response to the recent protests in Spain, Spanish tourism minister Álvaro Nadal has warned against ‘tourism-phobia’, saying that Spain «can’t allow itself to be perceived as a country that is hostile to tourists». The country’s economy has only recently recovered from the financial crisis of a decade ago, and any threat to tourism, of which it is so dependent, would be disasterous.

Governments must act

United Nations' World Tourism Organization secretary general Taleb Rifai has said the rise in anti-tourist sentiment is «a very serious situation that needs to be addressed in a serious way». He added that if managed correctly, tourism can be the best ally for conservation, preservation and the community. Elizabeth Becker, author of Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism, believes that only governments can resolve the increasingly urgent issue of mushrooming tourism numbers greatly harming the industry.

Governments have the power to lessen pressures on residents, change public opinion and impose tourist taxes that can provide revenues to help locals. They can control entry to their countries, prevent inappropriate or excessive hotel and resort development, and limit rip-off prices that distort markets. They can control numbers of aeroplanes, trains and cruise ships entering their territories and the number of farmers receiving subsidies to provide food for tourist restaurants and cafes.

Tourism is the largest employer on the planet

However, many governments are in no hurry to implement such measures as travel and tourism is an $8 trillion industry, and now the largest employer on the planet: one in every 11 people relies on the industry for work.

Despite that, changes are being made in an increasing number of places. Bans have been put in place, including curbs on people paddling in the fountains or eating in public in Rome and Milan, and a ban on Segways in Barcelona. In Dubrovnik cameras have been installed to monitor the flow of people arriving on cruise ships, while Hvar, near Split, is fining visitors for nakedness and «debauchery». Ibiza and Majorca have capped the number of beds available for tourists to 623,624, and plan to cut that by a further 120,000 in the next few years.

Limited number of visitors and tourist bans

An increasing number of cities, including New Orleans and Vancouver, have imposed regulations on Airbnb rentals to appease locals complaining of rising rents and being overwhelmed by tourists. Amsterdam, Barcelona and the Seychelles are curtailing large-scale development.

Italy's Cinque Terre, Utah's Zion National Park and Peru's Machu Picchu are examples of tourism hotspots that are limiting the annual number of visitors. Those heading for the Himalayas at Bhutan are now subject to visitor taxes and fees, as are tourists going to Venice. Thailand's Koh Tachai island in the Similan National Park has banned visits altogether.

From all this, one thing’s for sure: for tourism to thrive in the coming years, the needs of locals must be far more greatly considered than they have in previous years.