The protests surrounding Bezos's star-studded wedding were just the most visible tip of a massive backlash against over-tourism in the city, and it's not just Venice. Other popular tourist hotspots are suffering the same local resistance, such as Barecelona and Palma.
Barcelona hosted 15.5 million tourists in 2023 — a little under ten times the number of people it has residents. Venice, where all of the luxury suites were booked for Jeff Bezos's celebrity wedding, saw activists raise a banner reading "No space for Bezos!" even Palma locals have been known to shoot water pistols at tourists in fury. The message is becoming clearer: enough is enough.
The negative impact of tourism on locals...
The economic benefits of tourism can no longer mask the negative impact — rising rents, ordinary working people moving out of nearby neighbourhoods and their being replaced with Air B and Bs, and real cafés being pushed out by tourist-specific fast food chains and souvenir shops.
Urban centers like Madrid and Barcelona now try to get back in charge by restricting short-term holiday rentals and imposing a limit on new hotel licenses.
A systemic problem..... with no obvious solution...?
Air B and B gets a lot of the flack around tourism, but in Barcelona, for example, only 25% of stays by tourists are in Air B and Bs, most are in hotels, and in towns on the cost, cruises are massive problem... cruise vacation travel is up 50% between 2022 and 2023, and Ryanair alone carried over 200 million last year. It is not just a housing or a hotel problem.
Spain, the second-most visited country in the world, is faced with a classic dilemma: how to preserve its way of life without allowing destruction to visit a major pillar of its economy. Tourism contributes over 12% to national GDP. Governments will not wish to impose major constraints when they rely so heavily on tourists' spending. But if left unchecked, this expansion risks suffocating the very culture and charm which attract tourists in the first place.
Final thoughts...
I guess it's down to the tourists... if you a love a place leave it alone, actually maybe this is something VR could sort out if it becomes super real, allowing you to visit a place without actually goig there, I'd personally be up for giving that a try, for sure!!!
Come to think of it VR is sort of off the boil in the age of AI, isn't it?!?