The backlash against overtourism grows in Europe's crowded cities
From Venice to Barcelona, residents are pushing back against the crush of visitors transforming their home cities.
In the historic centres of some of Europe's most beloved cities, a growing tension is reshaping the experience of travel: a backlash against overtourism, as residents push back against the crush of visitors transforming their neighbourhoods.
In Venice, where the permanent population has dwindled while tens of millions of tourists arrive each year, locals have protested the towering cruise ships that disgorge day-trippers and the conversion of homes into short-term rentals. In Barcelona, residents have marched against the pressures that mass tourism places on housing, prices and daily life.
The complaints are strikingly similar across cities: soaring rents as apartments become holiday lets, streets clogged with crowds, beloved local shops replaced by souvenir stores, and a creeping sense that the city is being hollowed out and turned into a stage set for visitors.
City governments have begun to respond, with measures ranging from limits on cruise ships and new rentals to tourist taxes and caps on visitor numbers at the most crowded sites. The debate pits the undeniable economic benefits of tourism against its costs to residents and the character of places.
For the thoughtful traveller, the backlash is a prompt to reflect: to visit in the shoulder season, to spend money in local businesses, to venture beyond the overrun hotspots, and to remember that the world's great cities are not theme parks but living places where people make their homes.