Anti-tourism activists descend on overcrowded beach at iconic vacation destination for partygoers

Tourists have long flocked to Ibiza for its beaches and nightclubs, but many Ibiza locals are fed up.Around 100 fed-up residents descended on the postcard-perfect Cala Saladeta beach on Sunday to protest the overwhelming tourist hordes they say have overrun the island, packed beaches, and driven up living costs, making their slice of paradise increasingly unlivable.The demonstration was organized by the Ibiza Youth Association, a nonprofit group formed just this year by young islanders frustrated by the loss of local culture and public spaces impacted by Ibiza’s booming tourism industry.“If you want to work, you will have to work mostly in the tourism sector,” the website states.“If you want to have fun, it will probably be electronic music.

Young people live on their island, but without it being for them.”The Mediterranean party capital is hardly alone.Anti-tourism sentiment has been boiling over across Europe in recent years, with concerns that the unrelenting influx of visitors not only crowds public spaces but, in the short term, also prices locals out of their communities.Spain has been a hot spot for demonstrations in recent years.Last summer, protesters in Barcelona famously sprayed visitors with water guns as anger over tourism spilled into the streets.But Simon Grannville, a luxury travel expert based in Valencia who operates across Ibiza and six other Spanish cities, said the demonstrations are misunderstood and simply anti-tourist.“In Ibiza, the seasonal rental market has pushed year-round costs to the point where the villa managers, drivers, and restaurant workers who make the island function through summer can’t afford to live there.

Some have ended up in their vehicles,” Granville told The Post.“The protests are that problem surfacing, not a referendum on tourism itself.”But the battle to reclaim their home feels like an uphill one.

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