Travelers visiting southern Europe may want to keep a low profile on Sunday, June 15, as widespread protests and demonstrations against overtourism are expected in some of the region’s most popular hubs.
Although there’s no centralized schedule of events, the protests are organized by various activist groups across an estimated 16 cities and regions in southern Europe, including Barcelona, Mallorca, Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián, Ibiza, and Valencia in Spain; Venice, Naples, and Palermo in Italy; and Lisbon, Portugal, as reported by Spain-based media outlet Catalan News. They have the collective aim to demand “limits on tourist exploitation,” according to the news outlet.
The upcoming demonstrations echo similar events from summer 2024, when activists in popular European destinations staged widespread protests around increased rents, housing shortages, and strained public resources, arguing that these issues are closely tied to too many tourists. The highest-profile action took place in Barcelona, where protestors squirted tourists with water pistols. The toy has since become a symbol of backlash against overtourism.
Spain, which has in recent years implemented numerous measures to curb overtourism, including an upcoming ban on Airbnbs across the country, continues to be a hot spot for demonstrations; the June 15 protests include several events on both its mainland and islands. In addition to the places already mentioned, marches and other demonstrations are planned for Palma, Menorca, Sevilla, Granada, Cantabria, Tenerife, and Málaga, said Pere Joan, a spokesperson for the Mallorca-based activist group Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life), which is helping to coordinate the events and has been involved with previous protests.
According to the New York Times, other protests across Europe could picket at airports, obstruct tourists’ entry to historic sites, and blockade tour buses. However, Joan was unsure which cities and regions would be employing such tactics.
Joan also emphasized that, contrary to what some tabloid media outlets have reported in the past, the protests are not targeting tourists themselves; rather they are directed at governments that activists and residents contend have not implemented strict enough restrictions to curb visitor numbers and improve the quality of life for locals. In 2024, Spain welcomed an estimated 94 million visitors—roughly 10 percent more than in 2023. Barcelona has been one of its most inundated cities, with more than 15.5 million overnight visitors in 2024; that’s nearly 10 times its population of 1.5 million.
“Our actions are not against tourists. They’re against the economic model we have based on tourism,” Joan said. “Our narrative, that we are saying for many years, is that we don’t have limits [on visitor numbers], and right now we are past the limits, so we need to reduce the number of tourists. We have to fight with the politicians who give false solutions.”
Following the widespread protests during 2024, residents in Mallorca have continued to make headlines in 2025 for speaking out against overtourism. In March, several activist groups wrote an open letter to tourists advising them against visiting the popular holiday island. “It is time to take a stand. Our leaders do not listen to us, so we, the residents, ask you: DO NOT COME. We do not need more tourists; in fact, you are the source of our problem,” read part of the letter.
In April came the first protests of the season. However, some of the June 15 demonstrations, which Menys Turisme, Més Vida has been publicizing on its social media channels, could mark the largest ones so far this year, Joan said, with between 15,000 and 20,000 people expected at the Palma event. About 90 local groups have signed up to participate, including environmental organizations and neighborhood associations, he noted.
Traveler precautions before June 15 protests
Joan confirmed to Afar that the upcoming protests are organized under the umbrella of the Southern Europe Network Against Touristification, or SET Network, a grassroots organization founded in 2017. “[SET Network] is the platform that coordinates all the groups,” Joan said.
The group does not appear to have an official website, but in 2018 it published a manifesto in hopes of generating “limits on the tourist industry, the adoption of differentiated fiscal policies for housing and vacation rentals, the de-touristification of city [sic] economy, or tourism de-growth,” among other goals.
According to the New York Times, SET held workshops in Barcelona in April that were attended by about 120 activists from more than a dozen cities across Europe. During those gatherings, participants discussed organizing a coordinated day of actions to raise awareness about “the urgent need to limit the growth of tourism.”
Some tourism experts note that travelers should stay informed about any scheduled protests ahead of time to avoid disruptions during their trips. Paula Vlamings, chief impact officer at Tourism Cares, a prominent nonprofit focused on sustainability in the travel industry, advises travelers to “prepare for a less-than-welcoming attitude if they are in proximity of the protests, and of course, even more crowding.”
Meanwhile, a recent blog post by travel company Rick Steves recommends travelers “tune into local news wherever you’re traveling: to increase your chances of finding out about planned protests before you stumble upon them. If you know when and where they’re taking place, you can make a point to steer clear.”
Vlamings also noted that such demonstrations are a timely reminder to both the travel industry and travelers that they have a growing responsibility to consider the vast social and environmental impacts that tens of millions of annual visitors—and their behavior and choices while they’re there—have on certain destinations.
“As an industry, the places we send travelers to are places people call home,” Vlamings said via email. “We are guests in their spaces. We must ask what they want from tourism as a starting point and treat them as important stakeholders—or travelers and locals won’t have a good experience.”
