Protesters take to streets in a dozen cities to march against an industry they say is wrecking communities
||| FROM THE GUARDIAN |||
Campaigners in at least a dozen tourist hotspots across southern Europe have taken to the streets to protest against “touristification.”
It is the most widespread joint action to date against what they see as the steady reshaping of their cities to meet the needs of tourists rather than people who live and work there.
Thousands turned out at marches in cities including Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca on Sunday, while others staged more symbolic actions. In the Italian port of Genoa, campaigners dragged a cardboard cruise ship through the old town’s narrow alleyways to show that tourism does not fit in the city.
A procession later on Sunday in Lisbon was due to involve a replica of St Anthony being “evicted” from his church and carried to the site of a prospective luxury hotel, to stress that even saints suffer from touristification.
In Barcelona, an estimated 600-800 demonstrators marched through the city centre chanting “Your holidays, my misery” and waving banners with slogans such as “Mass tourism kills the city” and “Their greed brings us ruin.”
Some fired water pistols, set off coloured flares and put “Neighbourhood self-defence, tourist go home” stickers on shop windows and hotels. Barcelona, a city of 1.6 million, drew 26 million tourists last year.
Threading through all the actions was a rallying cry for a rethink of a tourism model that campaigners say has increasingly funnelled profits into the hands of a few, while leaving locals to pay the price through soaring house prices and rents, environmental degradation and the proliferation of precarious, low-paying jobs.
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