Photo Gallery Is Tourism Ruining Europe's Cities?
A man walks past "Tourist Go Home" grafitti on a wall close to City Hall in Oviedo, a city in northern Spain. The mass tourism created by budget airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet is angering locals in many places. The hordes of tourists at times make them feel like foreigners in their own homes.
After a Chinese television show featured scenes filmed in lavender fields in Provence's Plateau de Valensole, tens of thousands of Chinese tourists began flocking to the area. Some locals view it as an economic opportunity, but others see the Chinese style of tourism as unsustainable and undesirable.
Partygoers in Gold Strand in Bulgaria can attend a foam party on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Germans used to be famous on Mallorca in Spain for getting drunk and obnoxious on buckets of cheap sangria. Although that is now discouraged in Spain, they are still welcome to explore the thrills at this Bulgarian beach resort.
One symbol of the scourge of modern mass tourism is Porto's Livraria Lello, which has often been named the world's most beautiful bookstore. It is also rumoured to have been the inspiration behind the Flourish and Blotts bookstore in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. In 2018, 1.2 million people visited the bookstore and paid a five euro entry fee for the privilege.
Cruise ships are also a part of the problem. They dump masses of tourists into cities like Venice (pictured here) and are a blight on the skyline. They also don't do a whole lot to help local economies. Visitors are typically in port for only a day and tend to eat their meals on the ship, meaning they don't buy much when in port. But they do leave behind a lot of trash, according to critics.
