Italian anti-tourism protestors have targeted key safes off holiday properties in a bid to deter visitors they say are pricing them out of local housing.
Activists calling themselves ‘Robin Hood’ have pulled off several safes from properties in Rome, denying travellers access to their holiday lets.
Letters were attached to lampposts around the city under Robin Hood felt hats, describing the vandalism as ‘the first’ attack on ‘the rich’.
‘If you are looking for the key safes and can’t find them, read this. We are rebelling,’ a note read, shared by local media.
‘We have removed these key storage boxes to denounce the sell-out of the city to short-stay holidays which alienate locals and leave residents out on the streets.’
It comes after a summer of fierce backlash against tourists to Mediterranean hotspots, with locals decrying what they see as lax regulation on tourist accommodation that has made it more difficult to find affordable housing.
Robin Hood hats were attached to lampposts around Rome with a letter lamenting tourism
Locked boxes, like the one pictured, were ripped from walls outside holiday properties
The rise of rental companies like Airbnb has seen some landlords move away from renting to residents in favour of letting out rooms or apartments to short-stay visitors.
This reduces the overall supply of housing, pushing up the cost of rent.
The activists said rents had risen ‘exponentially’ in recent years.
‘This is only our first action against the Holy Year of the rich,’ their letters read.
More than 35 million tourists visited Rome last year, making it a record year and all-time high in attendance.
The year prior, as Rome built back from the pandemic, some 15 million arrived – with 30 million overnight stays climbing 176 per cent from 2021.
Next year, Rome and Vatican City will also host its jubilee ‘Holy Year’, expected to attract some 30 million visitors from around the world and piling extra pressure onto locals.
But some residents worry that keeping tourists away will affect their livelihoods or tarnish the reputation of their city.
Demonstrators clashed with police in Venice in April over a new ‘tourist tax’ imposition, requiring short stay visitors to pay an ‘entrance fee’ of €5.
Protestors armed with signs and banners lined the historic canals of the Italian city to show their contempt, met by riot police wielding batons.
Critics maintain that the €5 (£4.30) fee, initially in effect through the summer, is unlikely to put a significant dent in the circa 30 million trips made to Venice each year.
People clash with police as they protest against the introduction of the registration and tourist fee 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 to the city for day-trippers, in Venice, 25 April
In a surprising statement, former mayor Massimo Cacciari went so far as to suggest tourists should flat-out refuse to pay the ‘absurd’ entrance fee, arguing they already ‘pay for everything’.
Cacciari noted in a statement to Adnkronos news agency that day visitors already pay ‘three times as much as residents’ for public transport in the city, and that travellers all contribute to the longevity of Venice’s restaurants and museums.
Reps also argue the fee will not fix the fundamental issues but only cloud the city’s public image.
Simone Venturini, the councillor in charge of tourism, defended the policy as part of a wider strategy trying to tackle the problems of overtourism, while admitting it was ‘no magic wand’.
‘Fewer day trippers does not mean less revenue because overnight tourists are more important to the economy of the city.
‘We will see the results in the medium to long-term and in the meantime we will assess how it goes.’
Spain saw the brunt of conflict on the issue this summer, with anti-tourism protestors going so far as to spray visitors with water as they dined out on popular streets.
Under the slogan ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, some 2,800 people – according to police – marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year.
Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale,’ and, ‘Tourists go home,’ before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors.
Chants of ‘Tourists out of our neighbourhood’ rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels.
Anti-tourist graffiti also appeared around holiday destinations this summer. In Mallorca, one read ‘Kill a tourist’.
Messages of ‘Tourists go home’ have been stencilled onto walls in Barcelona and in the Balearic Islands.
Protestors squirted water guns at tourists eating in popular spots in the city
A symbolic cordon was put around a bar-restaurant in an area popular with tourists
For the six months to the end of June, 42.5 million international visitors travelled into Spain, with June alone recording a 12 per cent rise to 9 million as the busier summer period picks up, according to Spain’s data agency INE.
That means 2024 has been shaping up to be another record year for tourism, already the world’s second most visited country behind France.
It is expected to beat last year’s high of 85 million tourists, when numbers exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
As in Italy, data shows visitors are increasingly opting to stay in rental apartments, rather than hotels, driving up demand for flats and incentivising landlords to buy up housing at the expense of residents.
The number of visitors to Spain in the first-half of the year staying in that type of accommodation was up 30 per cent, while those staying in hotels was up 11 per cent.