The city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. (Photo by Alexey Tauzin/Adobe Stock)
Many European destinations are trading their tourism campaigns, enticing tourists to visit them for strict anti-tourist measures. Mass travel has really turned the tourism industry upside down.
Housing and traffic crisis, noise, pollution, household waste… Some places in Europe have become almost unfit for residents, because so many tourists come there every year.
The World Tourism Organization, quoted this Monday, January 29, by the newspaper Express, predicts that by the end of the decade, the flow of international tourists will exceed two billion.
Overtourism has forced local authorities in many tourist hotspots to take drastic measures to limit its impact on both locals and the environment.
Spain
In Spain, Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, one of the country’s most popular pilgrimage destinations, is considering introducing a tourist tax to combat overtourism.
While it welcomes more than 300,000 tourists and pilgrims every year, the city wants to stop being seen as a simple one. Theme park “The authorities also intend to control the number of tourists in the historic center of Santiago de Compostela.
In Mallorca, the main destination of the Balearic Islands, anti-tourist sentiment is also on the rise. According to the local press, locals can no longer stand nearly naked tourists wandering the shops and city streets.
The town of Calvia has implemented a rule prohibiting walking “ Naked or semi-naked » In the streets, Palma, the capital of Majorca, and also in Playa de Palma, a rule applied.
Croatia
The very popular city of Dubrovnik has implemented as part of the initiative “ Respect the city », a luggage drop system to reduce the noise generated by wheeled suitcases on the cobbled streets of the city centre.
From next November, the municipality will install mandatory lockers at different places in the city, where it will be prohibited to carry luggage.
Measures taken to regulate tourist arrivals also concern other behaviors: sleeping or urinating in public places, climbing monuments, drunkenness, consumption of alcohol near protected public places, etc.
Violators of these rules risk heavy fines and imprisonment.
Amsterdam
Often crowded with visitors, the city of Amsterdam It has decided to bar cruise ships from approaching its main port. The measure comes as part of a broader deterrence campaign, called ” A campaign of desperation “
The initiative includes several other measures, including banning outdoor smoking of marijuana in red light districts. Official poster campaigns also encourage certain categories of tourists. Stay away “
The city’s mayor clarified that the measures are aimed at making visitors ” Vacation without morals » and managing mass arrivals of tourists.
