Mass Tourism-Louvre Museum employee shut down.Protesters in Spain squirt water on tourists

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WhatInThe

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Apparently mass tourism in Europe causing an issue for emloyees and residents.

The Louvre Museum in Paris shut down due to an employee protest saying they are over whelmed by the amount of tourists/visitors- the reason they have job.

The world’s most-visited museum shuts down with staff sounding the alarm on mass tourism

In Spain protesters were squirting tourists with water pistols saying mass tourism has caused housing issues.

Protesters in Spain shoot water guns at tourists in demonstration against mass tourism, housing costs
 

I'm not a big fan of tourists, but spraying them with water isn't right. This is the fault of local governments and greed. However, tourists can be a real pain. When I was stationed in Europe with the Army, I would see tourists treating the locals rudely........and they got handled. Even my fellow Americans. No, I didn't run to help them, they brought it on themselves.
 

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The protestors are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. In parts of Spain, where they're protesting..like the Canary Islands..it's the tourists money that keep their economy afloat.. and gives everyone a job...

..due to these protests.. bookings are down 10 % already this year with tourists deciding to spend their money in countries like Greece and Turkey where they're welcome..
 
Yes, heaven forbid that you should build a museum and all those...<shudder> ..tourists.... want to come in and see your art! And pay for the privilege of doing so. What a horrifying concept! Who would have thought this would happen?

Best that they stay home so that you can go bankrupt and close your doors. Unless you think you can get by with only the locals coming?

Hey, they don't want tourist money? I say don't give them any. We'll see how long that makes them happy....
 
I saw the story about locals in Barcelona spraying water on tourists. It is apparently because of rent prices rising due to short-term vacation rentals. This is also happening in Venice and Lisbon.

The tension is rooted in data. Barcelona welcomed over 15.5 million tourists in 2024 — despite having just 1.7 million residents. Meanwhile, rent prices in the city have surged by nearly 70 percent since 2015. Much of the blame has fallen on short-term vacation rentals, which have converted thousands of homes into tourist accommodations, leaving fewer affordable options for locals.

Here's why European locals are dousing tourists with water guns
 
Hey, they should all come here to Orlando. We loooove tourists. Well, we don't really, but we do put up with them. Without tourists, Central Florida could go back to being a small town in the middle of orange groves.....except that there aren't any orange groves left. It's all condos and housing developments and hotels.

So, we welcome our tourists and don't spray them with squirt guns. We just give them dirty looks when they clog up I-4 18 hours a day. We like their money. We hope they keep coming and spending lots and lots of it.
 
seadoug said:
I saw the story about locals in Barcelona spraying water on tourists. It is apparently because of rent prices rising due to short-term vacation rentals. This is also happening in Venice and Lisbon.

The tension is rooted in data. Barcelona welcomed over 15.5 million tourists in 2024 — despite having just 1.7 million residents. Meanwhile, rent prices in the city have surged by nearly 70 percent since 2015. Much of the blame has fallen on short-term vacation rentals, which have converted thousands of homes into tourist accommodations, leaving fewer affordable options for locals.

Here's why European locals are dousing tourists with water guns
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I saw where Spain took 16,000 AirBB units off the market to help increase local housing supplies.

Unlike a beach town because of it's European cities have history all over the city. In places like Florida as soon as one gets away from the beach the less congested it gets although away from the beach seems to keep on increasing in distance in many places
 
People have to live in these tourist areas. If tourism is negatively impacting them, then it's legitimate to protest. Of course tourism brings in money, but do you not think those protesting know that already? Is there really no line that can be crossed by mass tourism?

We could always try listening to the complaints, and have a level of empathy, rather than thinking like entitled tourists who seem to think locals should put up with whatever issues they cause because hey, they spent some money. We're in times where foreign folk are being thrown out of countries, yet we want to ignore that there are wider issues that will come about.

Still, this isn't just about tourism, it's about TOO MUCH tourism. If you lived in some of these places, and you felt your life was being negatively impacted by mass tourism, would you just nod you head or complain? If you families were being forced to other towns and cities due to tourism, would you accept it and smile?

Why are we in times when protesting is automatically seen as a riot?
 
WhatInThe said:
Apparently mass tourism in Europe causing an issue for emloyees and residents.

The Louvre Museum in Paris shut down due to an employee protest saying they are over whelmed by the amount of tourists/visitors- the reason they have job.

The world’s most-visited museum shuts down with staff sounding the alarm on mass tourism

In Spain protesters were squirting tourists with water pistols saying mass tourism has caused housing issues.

Protesters in Spain shoot water guns at tourists in demonstration against mass tourism, housing costs
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Dumb de dumb dumb....
 
Aunt Bea said:
I agree that there are problems but it seems to me that the tourists are just an easy target/scapegoat when the real issues are with the way that local governments choose to regulate and tax the tourist industry.
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Yes it isnt an individual tourist who behaves with the law that is the problem - but over tourism - which partly stems from local govt not regulating enough - limiting cruise ship numbers, making people pre book entrances to museums and such and have a capped number per day, limiting short term vacation rentals where these are pushing locals out of homes etc

People have a right to protest about working conditions - defensively saying tourists pay your wages as if that means any bad working conditions are ok, seem unfair to me

There is a limit to how many tourists a place can manage and the tourism industry still be benificial - over tourism is doing more harm than good to some places and locals have a point in wanting to control that.
It isnt a matter of wanting no tourists - it is a matter of finding right balance and i n some places balance has tipped too far into over tourism causing problems.
 
hollydolly said:
The protestors are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. In parts of Spain, where they're protesting..like the Canary Islands..it's the tourists money that keep their economy afloat.. and gives everyone a job...

..due to these protests.. bookings are down 10 % already this year with tourists deciding to spend their money in countries like Greece and Turkey where they're welcome..
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We've been to Athens many times, as late as last year, and the local business owners are ALWAYS welcoming and friendly. We rented an apartment in Athens last year and a woman who was the concierge met with us and even scheduled a transfer to the airport. We haven't been to Turkey in 15 years but it's on our radar.

You're right about the Canary Islands. Without tourism, they're toast. :(
 
I visited Louvre museum once, would not go again. Same with Barcelona, Rome, and Venice, there are just way too many tourists. The experience is not enjoyable at all. Amsterdam is the same mess, and the Dutch are very unfriendly people, sometimes even hostile. So I avoid the Netherlands now. I now go to smaller cities/towns in Europe. I have made flight connection in Istanbul many times(with the wonderful Turkish airlines business class flights), but somehow I had no desire to go outside of IST airport. The people there just seem too complicated to deal with.
 
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this is NOT a tourist problem this is a national admin problem - they need to get their acts together or lose a lot of monies!! stagger tourists intakes for one - come on ya not even paying me for this!
 
smiley said:
this is NOT a tourist problem this is a national admin problem - they need to get their acts together or lose a lot of monies!! stagger tourists intakes for one - come on ya not even paying me for this!
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? This seems to be a contradiction. It's a "national admin problem" because of tourism - see?

Besides, it's not something the central government has to deal with, they have local governments.

As for staggering tourists, it's not the people in Venice who schedule the cruise ships. With cruise ships getting larger, anything over 25,000 gross tons was banned from Venice. What did the cruise liners do? They went to another port and bussed the people in.......
 
The Spanish I find can be such a lazy bunch of sun worshippers and don't like sharing it much - my bro lived there once and I would pop in to see him occasionally - avoiding tourist traps
 
I’m glad I went to Italy twice including Venice and Rome in 2003 and 2007. We went in March and walked right up to places like the Trevi fountain. I’m guessing they didn’t allow cruise ship in Venice back then because we didn’t see any. I actually was shocked when I realized that they allowed cruise ships to dock there.

If too many tourists are negatively impacting their quality of life the residents need to protest to their local government, instead of squirting the tourists with water.
 
smiley said:
this is NOT a tourist problem this is a national admin problem - they need to get their acts together or lose a lot of monies!! stagger tourists intakes for one - come on ya not even paying me for this!
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I don't care whose problem it is. I know it is not my problem. And I will not visit any of those places mentioned above.
 

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