Nan Palmero was at a rehearsal dinner in Mexico City’s trendy Roma Norte neighborhood, ahead of a marriage of two American friends, when he heard a “rumbling” outside.
From the restaurant’s second story, Palmero described seeing a big group of individuals moving through the streets, some holding placards, shouting “Gringos leave.”
He later learned that demonstrators smashed restaurant windows and damaged vehicles, including the brand new automobile of his friends’ wedding planner — an area resident — he said.
 “They wrecked her automobile, they smashed a window, they ripped off a mirror, they spray-painted the side of it. It was really pretty nasty,” he said.
Palmero, an avid traveler from San Antonio, Texas, said he had heard that an influx of digital nomads and foreign tourists had pushed up prices in a number of the city’s hottest neighborhoods.
But he was not aware that residents were organizing demonstrations, like people who he had examine in Barcelona and other parts of Europe, he said.
“People … need to go and experience these beautiful and wonderful cultures around the globe,” he said, adding that “we affect the thing that we’re attempting to experience in a negative way.”
Protests on the rise
Protests against tourists have increased in frequency and size as residents — who got a snippet of their cities without tourists through the pandemic — have seen tourism return to, and even exceed, pre-pandemic levels, said Bernadett Papp, senior researcher at European Tourism Futures Institute within the Netherlands.
Residents typically select protests, as an alternative of other types of lobbying, because they generate public awareness, which results in media coverage and societal pressure for governments to act, she said. This happened in Barcelona, while other types of societal pressure elevated tourism on policy agendas in Amsterdam, she said.
Graffiti on a wall in Mexico City. In Mexico, “gringo” is usually used to confer with foreigners, especially those from the USA.
Source: Ernest Osuna
Locals also protest because they have no idea whom to show to. “Tourism public policymaking is very fragmented, making it difficult for residents to discover the suitable decision-makers to interact with,” said Papp. “This is usually intensified by frustration and a loss of religion in the federal government on account of perceived inaction.”
Why tourists are targeted
Residents’ reactions are likely to evolve as overtourism intensifies, said Tatyana Tsukanova, a visiting professor and researcher at EHL Hospitality Business School.
“They might tolerate it at first, then voice concerns, sometimes turn confrontational, and ultimately search for tactics to adapt and push for constructive change,” she said. “And along this path, tourists often grow to be scapegoats.”
A person geese and a lady covers her ears as protesters interrupt their meal in Barcelona on July 6, 2024.
Josep Lago | Afp | Getty Images
In July of 2024, protestors in Barcelona, Spain, threw items, sprayed travelers with water guns and canned drinks, and used police-style tape to dam hotel entrances and sidewalk cafes. The message from the group was clear: “Tourists go home.”
Barcelona, and the Spanish island of Mallorca saw water gun-toting protestors return in June, while there have been demonstrations in other parts of Spain, Venice, Italy and Lisbon, Portugal, based on the Associated Press. Protestors in Barcelona set off firecrackers and opened a can of pink smoke, it said.
Travelers will be the visible factor in charge, but policy gaps are the foundation of the issue, said Tsukanova.
Confrontations as a tactic
Research shows that direct confrontations with tourists could make travelers feel unwelcome, and thus lead some to reconsider trips, said Tsukanova.
A person argues with protesters outside a Barcelona hotel on July 6, 2024.
Paco Freire | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Protests can, nonetheless, generate awareness concerning the problems residents face, which may cause travelers to vary certain behaviors, similar to selecting hotels over short-term rentals, she said.
But there may be little evidence that protests have long-term effects, said Tsukanova.
Papp said cities that reply to pressure brought on by protests often accomplish that with ad-hoc policies which can be more symbolic than they’re meaningful.
“Such measures, in turn, reinforce societal concerns and fuel negative perceptions of tourism,” she said. “It’s a cycle.”
Possible solutions
To stop cities which can be “not made for living, but for tourism,” destinations can reduce short-term rentals and impose significantly higher taxes on tourists, said Lionel Saul, visiting lecturer at EHL Hospitality Business School.
While academics are developing ideas for “regenerative travel” — a type of tourism that helps locals, relatively than hinders, them — cities should include local communities in tourism development, he said.
Doug Lansky, a travel author and frequent speaker about tourism development, agreed, saying that local voices are sometimes missing from critical discussions, which hurts destinations in the long term.
“If these residents had a seat on the table — any table — where they felt that they voices were being heard locally, then they would not must march within the streets,” he said.
Lansky is a proponent of “managed tourism,” citing limits similar to timed entries to attractions, visitor caps, and the restriction, but not elimination of, short-term rental markets.
The trade-off, he said, is less serendipity than travelers had prior to now.
“It is not as fun … [but] you are not going to be wasting your day standing in line,” he said. “It will profit all.”
Clarification: This text has been updated to make clear that societal pressure elevated tourism on policy agendas in Amsterdam.
