‘It’s Tourist Hunting Season’: The Street Art That’s Seething About Mass Tourism

LOADINGERROR LOADING The writing is on the wall across Spain. Residents who are becoming increasingly frustrated with the negative impact of mass tourism on their daily lives ― including but certainly not limited to higher rents and real estate prices ― are taking to the streets to voice their fury. Demonstrations have this year mushroomed across the second most-visited country in the world ― from Barcelona with its water-gun-touting activists in the north to Malaga in the south, from the Canary Islands archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa to the Balearic Islands of Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca in the Mediterranean Sea. Advertisement Protesters in Malaga in June 2024 with a banner that when translated into English reads, “Malaga to live, not to survive.” SOPA Images via Getty Images Some protesters, however, have also taken to leaving more permanent reminders of their anger in the form of graffiti, street art and sticker campaigns. “It’s Tourist Hunting Season,” “Tourists Go Home” and “Fuck Airbnb” are among the scathing messages that have been photographed daubed on walls or printed on stickers across the two biggest cities — the capital Madrid and Barcelona — this year alone. Related Travel and TourismSpainstreet art Barcelona...