Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the protests against over-tourism taking place across Europe

Large protests are held in Spain, Italy and Portugal calling for a curb on mass tourism - with Barcelona organisers telling demonstrators to bring water pistols to shoot at holidaymakers. 

Campaigners say excessive levels of tourism are forcing locals out of affordable housing, raising the cost of living and making the city centres 'unusable'.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey unpacked the protests further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray are UK correspondents with us Ay Gevin Hi there.
They're going to discuss the sanctions at the G seven,
but will they actually impose sanctions.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, that's something that this government in the UK is
very much looking at, along with the European allies. There's
all this talk about Coalition of the Willing coming to
the fore again because Donald Trump's attempts to get them
around the table Ukraine and Russia and get a piece
deals on to that does seem to be stalling, with
the Russians showing very little interest in it, and so

(00:30):
it's a chance I think at the G sid yes,
to discuss other things, including of course what's going on
in the Middle East. But I think as well the
UK Prime Minister on the plane on the way over
talking journalists said, you know, if Vladimir Putin does not
agree to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine and there's movement there,
then further sanctions are bound to follow sort of things.

(00:51):
So that's something he's very keen on doing, to do
things through the sort of the court of law as
it were, and new sanctions rather than any other weapons
a choice. But it's certainly going to be an interesting
discussion because not all the countries involved are going to
be that keen on doing it. Though of the G seven, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
the US and the UK, as well as the EU

(01:14):
are certainly going to need to show unified from Hey, did.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
You see those guys in Spain are running around with
water pistols and firing it at the tourists.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yes, and being encouraged to fire at at tourists. So
this is the ongoing protests in various countries, predominantly in
Spain but also now in Italy and Portugal that they're
basically saying tourism, mass tourism, excessive levels of tourism are
forcing locals out of affordable housing. They say, the cost
of living now in the city centers is absolutely unsustainable,

(01:44):
and these anti tourism protests are getting bigger and bigger.
Now while average wages have risen a few percent, they're saying, actually,
do you know what the percentage rise of rental properties
has gone up massively more, And Barcelona has twenty million
tourists in twenty twenty four, and they're saying, you know,

(02:06):
quite frankly that number is unsustainable when you look at
who uses hotels and who uses Airbnb or other various
ways of staying over and it comes, as we're seeing
reports a set of almost shanty towns now on the
edge of some of these very popular tourist destinations because
locals say they're unable to live there, so big protests

(02:27):
saying they want the government to act to limit tourism,
but also to say to make holidaymakers much or much
less welcome by perhaps praying than with water pistols, and
even in some centers in the bally Erics islands of
the Off Africa that are Spanish, saying that perhaps people
should put super glue in the locks of holiday apartments.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Oh ly, jeez, that's rough. Gevin, thanks very much, appreciate it.
Kevin Gray, UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
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