Disturbing public message in tourist hotspot highlights worrying new trend

Authorities in one of Europe’s most popular holiday destinations have condemned concerning graffiti that appeared on a wall this week urging locals to “kill a tourist.” The troubling message is the latest to be spotted in Spain amid growing unrest among residents, who say travelers are to blame for the country’s worsening cost of living and housing crises.

After similar sets of graffiti were spotted in Barcelona in recent weeks, it appears the mood has yet to improve, with the latest message in Mallorca — one of Spain’s Balearic Islands — much more aggressive than those previously photographed.

The governing conservative People’s Party (PP) urged people living in the area to denounce such “acts of vandalism”, which it described as “totally unjustified”.

Authorities insist tourists are welcome despite locals’ sentiment

The party said it had noted a “worrying proliferation of graffiti with tourism-phobic messages” in the region, The Sun reported. PP spokesperson Maria Antonia Sanso Jaume urged people considering taking similar action to reconsider. “This graffiti does not represent, in any case, the majority feeling of the residents of Manacor (a town on Mallorca),” she wrote on social.

“Tourists are welcome to visit our island. Such behavior is totally unjustified.”

The incident comes amid widespread unrest in Spain as tens of thousands of locals gather in protest against mass tourism. One Australian expat living in Barcelona told Yahoo News locals “are at breaking point”.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Barcelona in July — a city which sees some 26 million travelers pass through each year — to denounce the country’s skyrocketing rates of tourism.

The protests follow similar actions in the Canary Islands and Mallorca, with locals telling foreigners via graffiti and in person to “go home”, citing overcrowding as the main reason for residents’ dwindling quality of life.

Freya Noble, a former resident of Sydney who moved to Barcelona last year, told Yahoo News Australia tourists who come into the city and spend time around the centre, where all the chain stores and restaurants are, “often are not really contributing much to the local economy” while taking up a lot of the apartments “that locals are struggling to afford.”

She said Spaniards are quite rightly fed up, but the situation is “complex.”

A 13-point proposal to decrease tourism levels

According to official figures, almost 26 million visitors will make an overnight stay in Barcelona in 2023, spending €12.75 billion (A$20.4b).

The Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turístic (the Neighborhood Assembly for Tourist Degrowth) said visitors increase prices and put pressure on public services, while profits from the tourism industry are unfairly distributed and increase social inequality.

In response it has published 13 proposals to reduce the number of visitors and to transition the city into a new model of tourism. They include closing cruise ship terminals, tighter regulation of tourist accommodation and an end to public spending on tourism promotion.

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