Stick a Knife in Overtourism

by Robert McGarvey

One early morning in July I was drinking coffee in the kitchen of a rental apartment in Lavapies, Madrid when an email came in from a friend who dates back to high school. “Why aren’t you in Barcelona,” he wanted to know.

I did not hesitate with my answer. I happen to like Madrid very much but just as important is that Barcelona in summer is stuffed with tourists, locals howl about overtourism, and the place just didn’t seem welcoming.

The next morning another email from my friend arrived saying, in effect, you’re right.

That’s because the day before an anti tourist protest had erupted in Barcelona where protesters fired water pistols at tourists.

There was none of that in Madrid although there were July protests against tourism in the Canary Islands and Valencia as well as Barcelona.

Spain is not unique. There have been loud grumbles about overtourism in Amsterdam, Greece (Athens and Santorini), Amsterdam, Bali and even places like Dubrovnik and Bruges.

I cannot say I have never been to an overtouristed destination. I was in Santorini in 1999 and swore I’d never return because the streets were thick with too many cruise passengers. Matters have only worsened but I’ve never returned so don’t blame it on me.

I went to Dublin for the first time in mid June 1989 and talked with more Americans than Irish. In this case I resolved never to return in the peak summer months and have often been to the 32 counties in late fall and early winter when few Americans – few tourists of any kind – are about. I have been the only guest in a hotel on the Antrim coast and one of a handful in hotels in Letterkenny and Donegal. Nobody complained about overtourism to me on those trips.

Of course I have been to Rome but my time to go is the first week or two of December when there are no tourists – and no wait times at museums or in Vatican City.

I have been to Berlin in that same early December slot and the Christmas markets are open but just about everybody you’ll talk with is a local (although in Berlin that often means a foreigner).

Note: A massive benefit of traveling in non peak times is that everything is cheaper – airfare, hotels, and and sometimes even restaurants.

But the other plus is that you won’t hear kvetching about tourists and you won’t be fired at with water pistols. Locals are happy you’re there because you are ringing the cash register.

Isn’t July a peak month for Spain’s tourism? It is but I did not see floods of tourists in Madrid except on the Gran Via, at the Prado and Reina Sofia museums and in the glitzy Salamanca neighborhood. And many of the tourists I encountered in Madrid were from other parts of Spain. Of course I spent many hours in the museum district but most of my time was spent in Lavapies, La Latina, El Rastro and Embajadores, a few miles removed from the Gran Via and – at least in the case of Lavapies – the population is a multicultural stew and who could tell if I’m a tourist or a local?

Lavapies has its issues around its future. There were bed sheets hanging from a building a block from where I stayed that protested the eviction of a family from an apartment up the street – Lavapies is well into a gentrification that is transforming a neighborhood that had once been impoverished – but the evictions seem to more blamed on the gentrification than on tourism per se and that’s the proper call.

The solution isn’t to ban Airbnb et. al. and grumble about tourists but to enact tenant protections and barriers to evictions.

Personally, while in Lavapies I ate in many local restaurants, drank in local bars, shopped in local markets and did not sense significant hostility.

Sure, some local bars are unwelcoming but I encountered more overt hostility in bars in South Boston a half century ago where in many cases the bartender simply would not serve an outsider. Nobody refused to serve me in Lavapies.

Bottomline: Overtourism is a real issue. Don’t contribute to it by going to destinations and places where there are overflows of tourists. Go if you want to but go in non peak times and to neighborhoods that aren’t bursting with tourists. And wherever you go, stay curious and respectful.

Oh: it helps to spend a long while in one place. I spent a month in Lavapies and, about halfway in, folks began recognizing me, some even started saying “hola.”

But a point I mull: erase tourism from the Canary Islands or Santorini for that matter or many of the places that complain the loudest and then what? 35% of the Canary Islands GDP derives from tourism. Overtourism can be ugly but so can poverty.