The residents of certain southern European cities have apparently taken to using water guns to discourage ‘overtourism’.
The photo above shows a couple of angry residents in city of Barcelona taking part of mass demonstrations, to protest the number of visitors to the Spanish city. Some guests were prevented from leaving their hotels when campaigners taped up exits. But maybe that saved the guest from getting squirted?
Tension has been mounting over the rising cost of housing and rents in Spain, and the cost of goods in the shops, with many locals blaming the trends on “Turistització” — which can be translated as “Touristization”.
Which is certainly less frightening than, say, “Dehumanization” or “Colonialization”. But still disturbing.
Thousands of people took to the streets of cities in southern Europe last Sunday to demonstrate against overtourism… firing water pistols at shop windows and setting off smoke bombs in Barcelona, where the main protest took place.
The water pistol has become a symbol of the protests, and stickers bearing illustrations of water guns were plastered on storefronts.
“Your holidays, my misery,” protesters chanted in the streets while carrying banners bearing slogans like “mass tourism kills the city” and “their greed brings us ruin”.
Some of the banners were written in English, because… well… a lot of the tourists are Americans, taking a break from the demonstrations in the U.S.
Similar anti-tourism protests also took place in Venice, Italy, and Lisbon, Portugal.
The stories in the Lamestream Media suggest that housing costs have increased by about 30% in Barcelona, due in part to homes and apartments being converted into vacation rentals.
No doubt water pistols will be the next item to see inflationary pricing.
The weekend protests in Barcelona obviously had a different goal from the protests here in Pagosa Springs, Colorado last weekend, which were part of the nationwide “No Kings” resistance event.
No squirt guns were used during the Pagosa protest for the simple reason that the “Kings” in question have never showed their faces in our community. But I’m willing to bet real money that squirt guns would have had little impact anyway, even if the “Kings” did happen to be vacationing in Pagosa.
One question comes to mind. Do the people of Pagosa Springs blame our local tourists for what is currently happening in Washington DC? I hope not. Except of course the tourists who voted for Donald Trump.
We can blame the tourists for a lot of other things, of course.
According to media reports, the mayor of Barcelona has publicly stated that Airbnb and other vacation rental platforms have caused the average price of a rental home to increase by about 68% over the past decade.
Here in Pagosa Springs, the average price of a rental has increased by about 100% — doubling in price, over the past decade. So, like, much worse than in Barcelona.
Another complaint from the pistols-wielding protesters in Spain is that the tourism industry pays low wages, which makes the high housing costs into an even worse problem.
We have the same issue here in Pagosa. Low wages. In the tourism industry, but also in the journalism industry. But journalism is a completely different problem, and probably would not be helped by the use of squirt guns.
I suspect that the 500 protesters who marched in Pagosa’s “No Kings” demonstration last weekend may have been wasting their time, because I seriously doubt the politicians in Washington were paying any attention.
But what if those same 500 protesters had armed themselves with water pistols, and showed our visiting tourists how we feel about tourism’s impact on housing and jobs here in Pagosa Springs… instead of worrying about “Kings” and all that political stuff…
Might not have made any difference, but it certainly would have been fun. I suspect there’s nothing more satisfying than squirting tourists with water guns.
Except maybe… squirting journalists?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.