Italian anti-tourism protesters have targeted key safes at holiday properties in a bid to deter visitors who they say are pricing local properties out of the market.
Activists calling themselves ‘Robin Hood’ have taken several safes from homes in Rome, blocking travelers from entering their holiday homes.
Letters were attached to lampposts in the city under Robin Hood felt hats, describing the vandalism as ‘the first’ attack on ‘the rich’.
‘If you’re looking for the key safes and can’t find them, read this. We are rebelling,” read one note, shared by local media.
‘We removed these key boxes to challenge the city’s sell-out of short breaks, which is alienating locals and leaving residents on the streets.’
It comes after a summer of intense backlash against tourists coming to Mediterranean hotspots, with locals decrying what they see as lax regulations on tourist accommodation, making it harder to find affordable housing.
Robin Hood hats were attached to lampposts in Rome with a letter deploring tourism
Locked boxes, like the one in the photo, were torn from the walls outside the holiday homes
The rise of rental companies such as Airbnb has led some hosts to switch from renting to residents to renting out rooms or apartments to short-term visitors.
This reduces the overall housing supply, causing rental costs to rise.
According to the activists, rents have risen ‘exponentially’ in recent years.
“This is only our first action against the Holy Year of the Rich,” they read in their letters.
More than 35 million tourists visited Rome last year, making it a record year and an all-time high in visitor numbers.
The year before, as Rome recovered from the pandemic, some 15 million arrived – with 30 million overnight stays, a 176 percent increase on 2021.
Next year, Rome and Vatican City will also host the jubilee ‘Holy Year’, which is expected to attract some 30 million visitors from around the world and put extra pressure on locals.
But some residents worry that keeping tourists away will affect their livelihoods or tarnish their city’s reputation.
Protesters clashed with police in Venice in April over a new ‘tourist tax’, which would require visitors to pay an ‘entrance fee’ of €5 for short stays.
Protesters armed with signs and banners lined the Italian city’s historic canals to show their contempt, met by riot police with batons.
Critics argue that the €5 (£4.30) fare, which initially came into effect over the summer, is unlikely to make a significant dent in the approximately 30 million trips made to Venice each year.
People clash with police as they protest the introduction of the registration and tourist tax in Venice, Italy, April 25, 2024
Members of social centers confront police officers during a demonstration in Piazzale Roma against the introduction of an entrance fee for day trippers in the city, in Venice, April 25
In a surprising statement, former mayor Massimo Cacciari went so far as to suggest that tourists should outright refuse to pay the “absurd” entrance fee, arguing that they are “already paying for everything.”
Cacciari noted in a statement to Adnkronos news agency that day visitors already pay “three times as much as residents” for the city’s public transportation, and that travelers all contribute to the longevity of Venice’s restaurants and museums.
Representatives also argue that the compensation will not solve the fundamental problems, but will only cloud the city’s public image.
Simone Venturini, councilor in charge of tourism, defended the policy as part of a wider strategy to tackle the problems of overtourism, while admitting it was ‘not a magic wand’.
‘Fewer day trippers do not mean less income, because overnight tourists are more important for the city’s economy.
‘In the medium term we will see the results and in the meantime we will assess how things are going.’
Spain saw the worst fallout from the conflict over the issue this summer, with anti-tourism protesters going so far as to spray visitors with water as they dined out on popular streets.
Under the motto ‘Enough! Let’s set limits on tourism’, according to police, some 2,800 people marched along a Barcelona waterfront neighborhood to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists who visit every year.
Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale’ and ‘Tourists go home’, before some used water guns on tourists eating outside.
As some stopped at hotel entrances, chants of “Tourists from our neighborhood” were heard.
Anti-tourist graffiti also appeared around holiday destinations this summer. In Mallorca people read ‘Kill a tourist’.
Messages reading “Tourists go home” have been stenciled on walls in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands.
Protesters shot water guns at tourists eating at popular spots in the city
A symbolic cordon was built around a bar-restaurant in an area popular with tourists
During the six months to the end of June, 42.5 million international visitors traveled to Spain, with a 12 percent increase to 9 million recorded in June alone as the busier summer period picked up, according to Spanish data agency INE.
This means that 2024 will be another record year for tourism, which is already the second most visited country in the world after France.
It is expected to surpass last year’s record of 85 million tourists, when numbers surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
As in Italy, data shows that visitors are increasingly choosing to stay in rental apartments rather than hotels, increasing demand for apartments and encouraging landlords to buy up properties at the expense of residents.
The number of visitors to Spain staying in this type of accommodation in the first half of the year increased by 30 percent, while the number of visitors staying in hotels increased by 11 percent.