Spain, Italy and Greece unite against tourists - 'Feel like foreigners in our country!'

The buzz word 'overtourism' dominated headlines in 2024. Many measures to curb it were taken, ranging from higher visitor fees to cruise-ship bans, hotel moratoriums and even water-pistol protests in Barcelona. But this summer shows little sign of relief. As travel demand remains relentless, residents in the world's most visited destinations are growing ever more frustrated.

"I said so. I said," Noel Josephides, chirman of a UK-based tour operator told CNN.He referred Europe's overtourism outrage in popular holiday spots like Spain, Italy or Greece, where locals protest mass tourism and its enduring impacts on their lives. Josephides recalled his speech from 2013, when he warned that the sharing economy spreadheaded at the time by Airbnb was booming in Europe. He predicted the rise in short-term rentals, expanding budget airlines and the new era of large-scale budget travel. But even if he foresaw the chaos, nobody acted. Today, he thinks local populations are right to prostest.

"It's out of control. I'm on the side of the protestors, even though it affects my business," he said.

Part of the chaos can be blamed on "revenge travel" - a phenomenon that emerged after restrictions were lifted when the Covid pandemic eased. It was exactly during the pandemic when locals felt like they could finally breathe in their cities.

A Barcelona local told CNN: "I remember walking in the streets very close to Las Ramblas and hearing birds singing and church bells. I'd never realized the bells tolled. But I never get to hear them anymore. Tourism has brought so much noise it's unbelievable."

Although one would think life post-pandemic would shift tourism towards sustainability, the opposite has happened.

In Italy, the story is not different. In a YouTube video, a local pop musian from Venice Ornello dressed himself as an astronaut, walking through the busy crowded streets.

He said: "I'm a cyclist and on Sundays I take my bike from Piazzale Roma (Venice's road terminus). I'm going out and I'm going against all the tourists arriving on the island and I feel like I'm a salmon going against the flow. Sometimes when you're surrounded by tourists, with hundreds all around you, you feel like you're the foreigner."

Greece faces a similar problem. According to a recent report by Which? Travel, the Zakynthos (Zante) island has a 150 to 1 ratio of visitors to residents.

"It's becoming harder for residents to live comfortably here year-round. Rents are up, traffic is constant in summer, and services are stretched thin. We welcome tourism, but the volume has to be managed," a local resident from the island's main town told Greek news site Neos Kosmos.