Furious Europeans target tour buses, attractions with water guns in anti-tourism protests

If you are jetting off for a European summer, there is one date to beware of: June 15.Locals in tourist hotspots who feel foreigners are turning their cities into playgrounds while they are left behind with a housing crisis, rising rents and environmental impacts are planning to disrupt airports, tour buses and popular attractions with placards and water pistols to get their point across.Following a meeting in Barcelona in April, a coalition of activists — the Southern Europe Network Against Touristification – revealed they were planning a day of protests on June 15.“The goal is not to attack individuals but to draw attention to the social and environmental toll tourism is taking on our cities,” one unnamed organizer from Lisbon told EU Today.“We are being squeezed out of our homes, our public spaces, and our daily lives.”“It’s not about hating tourists – it’s about saving our communities,” said another activist.The Spanish island of Majorca is expecting its biggest day of anti-tourist demonstrations yet, with 60 groups wanting to bring the streets to a standstill with the slogan, “For the right to a decent life; Stop touristification”.It is certainly not the first time we have seen these kinds of protests.One of the latest incidents to grab global headlines was in Barcelona in April when protesters congregated outside the city’s Sagrada Familia Basilica wielding water pistols and shouting “tourists go home” as a bus packed with visitors made its way through the streets.Brett Mitchell, the Australian managing director of Melbourne-born global company Intrepid Travel, said he understood the frustrations of people living in these tourist hotspots and getting the balance right was a real issue that needed to be dealt with.He said it was on everyone, including government, tour operators, cruise lines and airlines, to get around the table and work on solutions for responsible destination management.“The reality is tourism is not goin...