Overtourism

Suitcases rattling through cobbled streets, self-styled influencers shooting content in front of anything Instagram- or TikTok-worthy and a snaking line of visitors lining up to get inside St. Mark's Basilica.

- IRIS GONZALES

This was what I saw one late morning at the world-famous St. Mark's Square in Venice during a recent family trip to this city.

The receptionist—a perky and long-haired woman with thick brows—at our no-frills but charming hotel tucked just a block away from the bustling square, said she is now just among the few Venetians left in the city, if not the only one.

She may be exaggerating, but I get her point. The hordes of tourists now swarming famed cities like Venice—us included—have unwittingly driven away the locals through the years.

It's no surprise that there is now a growing movement against overtourism in Europe. Protests have erupted across many popular cities from Barcelona to Lisbon and even in the Greek island of Santorini.

The growing movement against the surge in tourists, according to The New York Times, is "driven by quality-of-life issues, including high housing costs and environmental damage, that protest organizers say are a result of overtourism."

The protesters are serious. For instance, according to the NYT article, on the Spanish island of Majorca, locals stopped a double-decker tourist bus, setting off flares and hanging a banner on its side.