Activists mount protests against the 'touristification' of southern Europe

Campaigners in a dozen holiday hotspots across southern Europe took to the streets yesterday in protest against "touristification".

- Ashifa Kassam

It was the most widespread joint action to date against what they see as the reshaping of their cities to meet the needs of tourists rather than the people who live and work in them.

Thousands turned out at marches in cities including Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca yesterday, 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 their city.

A procession yesterday in Lisbon involved a replica statue of St Anthony being "evicted" from his church and carried to the site of a planned luxury hotel, to stress that even saints suffer touristification.

An estimated 600 to 800 demonstrators marched in central Barcelona chanting "Your holidays, my misery" and waving banners with slogans such as "Mass tourism kills the city" and "Their greed brings us ruin".

They fired water pistols, set off smoke 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 housing costs, environmental degradation and precarious, low-paying jobs.