Anti-tourism activists across Spain have put up fake beach closure signs and blocked traffic with go-slow walks in their latest attempts to dissuade holidaymakers from visiting.
The Caterva protest group put up red tape and ‘Beach Closed’ signs at several coves in Manacor, eastern Majorca on Saturday to stop tourists from lounging.
The group said it blocked off the coves for ‘residents’ use and rest’, arguing in a social media post that it is time to ‘change course and prioritise life’.
In a separate action, nearly 850 miles away, residents in the municipality of Cangas do Morrazo, Galicia caused traffic chaos by walking back and forth across its zebra crossings in a half-hour demo to prevent visitors from reaching the coast.
The separately-organised protests just the latest wave of campaigns targeting tourists.
Anti-tourism demonstrations have broken out throughout the summer with locals seen marching to ‘reclaim the beaches’ and hanging ‘Tourists go home’ banners at holiday hotspots across the country.
Caterva, in a social media post, proudly boasted how it was behind the fake beach closures in Manacor last weekend.
The group hung the signs at several coves in the area,including the secluded white-sand cove Cala Varques and a ‘hidden’ cove good for snorkelling and diving called Cala Petita.
‘New action by Caterva in Manacor. We closed coves for residents’ use and rest. Let’s change course and prioritise life,’ the group wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
In a subsequent statement it added: ‘We believe the tourist is part of the machinery and has responsibility for the situation we suffer.
‘But the main people responsible are those who own the hotel chains and construction companies and real estate firms.
‘They’re the ones we should be pointing our fingers at.’
Similarly, a separate group of activists took to the streets of Cangas do Morrazo yesterday, on the headland separating the estuaries of Pontevedra and Vigo. The whole area is dotted with beautiful sandy beaches and stunning clifftop views.
Around 80 locals launched an ingenious protest by walking repeatedly back and forth across the village’s three crossings in front of stunned motorists forced to wait roughly 30 minutes for them to finish before advancing.
They carried out the demo to complain about the level of saturation at the municipality’s 38 beaches and the fact visitors park outside of designated areas and cause more problems.
Some tourists are said to have given up trying to reach the coast and turned round.
The protest started around 11.30am yesterday and continued till around midday before being abruptly called off before police could arrive and identify those taking part.
Villager Esperanza Vega said: ‘Every summer things get worse.’
Mercedes Villar, president of a local neighbourhood association, added: ‘This is not tourism-phobia, it’s the right of residents to leave in peace and it’s about protecting our security and physical integrity.’
Two major demos have taken place so far this year in the Majorcan capital Palma to protest at some of the problems caused by mass tourism including overcrowding and difficulties accessing affordable housing.
Other smaller protests have taken place in other parts of Majorca as well as Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.
On July 27 around 250 protestors impeded tourist access to a picture-postcard Menorcan beach in a ‘surprise action’.
Activists boasted of filling a car park by Cala Turqueta, a beautiful cove on the island’s southern coast, with ‘residents’ cars’.
They then used towels and their own bodies to shape the message ‘SOS Menorca’ on the sand by the waterline.
The unannounced protest, by environmental non-profit organisation GOB Menorca, resulted in the car park being ‘blocked’ to holidaymakers for around six hours from early morning according to local reports.
Anti mass-tourism protests have also taken place in the Canary Islands, where thousands took to the streets in co-ordinated April 20 demos across the Atlantic archipelago, as well as places like Alicante and Malaga.
Graffiti targeted at tourists has appeared in both Tenerife and Majorca.
On August 18 protesters unfurled a huge banner telling tourists on a packed Costa Blanca beach: ‘Go home.’
The activists let off pink flares to make sure holidaymakers relaxing on the sand or cooling off in the sea received the message.
They appeared to be directing themselves at English-speaking visitors with the language they used in bright-red capital letters, although they also used the local Valencian language to appeal to residents with a message above it on the banner which said: ‘Aturem La Turistificacio’ – ‘Stop Touristification.’
The beach protest was carried out by a group called Garrot and took place at Barraca Cove, also known as Portixol Cove, near the Costa Blanca tourist hotspot of Javea close to Benidorm.
The banner was unfurled on rocks to the north of the cove where it was clearly visible to those in the sea and on the beach.