This has been a long-standing problem in the Mediterranean and mostly in Spain, where many Europeans rent or even own houses that they only use a few months a year. I believe the Spanish government has been enabling this for economic reasons.

This even led to a ghetto effect, where most tourists from one country tend to gather on a certain part of the coast. And Spaniards have been traditionally unfriendly to tourists. Maybe willing and accomodating on the coast, but go inland, you immediately notice it, esp. if you try to converse in English (personal experience).

The ABDT notably prefers the term “touristification” to “overtourism”. According to them, the concept of “overtourism” risks depoliticising the issue, framing it as a simple problem of too many visitors. Instead, they say, the problems are a result of the structural inequalities tied to capitalist accumulation, tourism’s extractive nature, and a sector that funnels community wealth into private hands.

Let’s hope other European (mostly mediterranean) countries follow suit. And let’s hope this does not just lead to shifting the suffering to further places.

‘Key demands included ending public subsidies for tourism promotion, regulating short-term rentals to prevent housing loss, cutting cruise ship traffic, and improving labour conditions with fair wages and stable work schedules.’ - This sounds strangely sane. It’s hard to believe that e.g. greatly reducing the ability of mega cruise ships to dump thousands of tourists at once into the city every day would be unfeasible to implement.

Blame the people in control of the system, not the random person who would like to see a bit of the world while they can.

Good read. I hope this grows.

Tragedy of the commons all over again.