Drunk visitors, rocketing rents and homogenised cafes: living in Europe’s tourist hotspots

21 comments

1. I live in Lisbon and avoid most of the city centre like the tourist plague it has become

2. Good luck renting a hotel in a tourist hot spot…

3. Tourism is a plague in very nearly all of its forms.

4. I agree that is a plague and some solutions may be needed. But I wonder which city are the people in the photo visiting these days?

5. I visited Lisbon first in 2014 and then again in 2022. Couldn’t believe how generic the city center is now, could be basically any European city. All cafes, bars and restaurants offer nothing authentic any more.

   I am a bit afraid that the same might happen to Porto, as I lived there for 8 months. Going back after almost 10 years it seems like the same process has started there, but at least it has still kept it’s charm. Hope it stays like that and goes no further.

6. Like any other Industry tourism have negative impacts on our societies

7. Can’t wait to be bailing Southern Europe out next year!

8. I was in Barcelona this summer. And before going I thought, how bad can it be? I’ve been there many times before (lovly city). But it was 10 years at least since my last visit. And my god, I never seen so much people in a city before. It was packed, everywhere. Can’t imagine trying to live in that. Commuting to and from work.

9. tourist hotspots need to start taxing tourism heavily. this isnt sustainable. Let them pay 50€ a day

10. At the beginning of this year I moved out of Venice. It had become soul-crushing.

11. Yeah now they want you to hate the tourists… Why travel? Stay in your community and work till the death for your overlords in one place, own nothing, want nothing, while the elites keep growing richer.

    And masses of idiots will applaud feeling they have been elevated (like a lot of Catalonians e.g.), not realizing all the beauty in the world means nothing if you are not allowed to see it.

12. Tourism is fine, too much tourism is bad. Not just for locals but for visitors.

    I don’t see the point to visit places that have lost the essence and becoming a kind of adults kindergarten with cheap beer and the exact same stores.

    I think is time to ban certain platforms.

13. London is fucking heaving at the moment. Trying to use the tube for work is near impossible.

14. Barcelona is insane now… I feel it is so much more intruding and noticeable then before. Everything is so super expensive also, if you compare to before pandemic.

    Hostel just last year, you could get a shared bed in dorm for 20-25€, same room now is 80€… who in the eff pays 80€ for a dorm shared with 16 other beds.

15. Sounds like the whole of the Netherlands

16. I’m all for freedom, but if locals truly want tonregulate the annualminflux of tourism, what could they do?

    Banning AirBnB is not going to help in the long run. Other apps will appear, and hotels will replace the offer. People with enough money in their hands will find a place to stay.

    I think the sanest option they have is to put an annual quota. You reserve your place in the queue, and wait until you can come. Maybe not this year, but the next. It depends, first come first served (fifo).

    I don’t think it would work (corruption, people selling their places somehow, lack of controls). But I think it might be better than banning apps.

    I got the idea from knowing that the USA had immigrant quotas per year in the 20th century.

17. Just went to Split and Dubrovnik and although cool and beautiful, I felt like I was in Disneyland ( especially in Dubrovnik). It was nuts and everyone was dressed to the nines and filming themselves. I much preferred the calm of the National Parks!!!

18. Dublin has sorted its problem of overtourism by deploying junkies to stab the tourists in the city centre.

19. You know a tourist city is really in a state of decay when you see a certain type of tourist always present at all the main spots and all they are interested in doing is getting their partner to take photos of them posing for Instagram and TikTok.

    They don’t even try to learn anything about the people, language or culture – just the photo opportunity with a zillion poses.

20. I wish we could limit tourists coming to Portugal or foreigners moving there up to a certain cap, so we don’t lose our culture so fast

21. Downtown Athens has always been meh, at best, but now it’s a massive tourist trap.

    You see tourists going into shops/restaurants that are going to absolutely rob them blind, but there’s not much you can do. The unfortunate thing is that they enjoy it because they don’t have a frame of reference of what a good shop/restaurant in Greece is like.

    Also, the gentrification of many places is unreal. Places that used to be known for its “poor people”, meaning there were places people of low income could rent, are gone. Everything is an AirBnB.