European destinations swamped by tourists

A picturesque town in Spain is being overwhelmed by tourists after its 1,000 hectares of lavender fields became a social media sensation.

Brihuega, a community of 3,000 in Guadalajara Province, attracts thousands of people each weekend looking to take selfies with its purple fields as a backdrop, making it the latest European destination to complain about overtourism.

The influx has led the town to urge people to keep away, despite the fact that visitors have brought 8 million euros ($9.2 million) to the local economy this year, and nurtured a 24 percent increase in its population.

"Take last Saturday for example: The village collapsed. It was a hard time for me," Brihuega's Mayor Luis Viejo told the Spanish national daily newspaper ABC.

"We have a wide range of tourist, cultural and artistic offerings, thanks to the lavender, but my advice is that people come and visit us between Monday and Thursday. Please. Weekends are more difficult because of the huge quantity of people who come."

Viejo urged visitors to avoid parking erratically on narrow country lanes.

"Ahead of next year, we need to build a park-and-ride parking lot on the outskirts of the historic center and connect it with shuttle buses," he said.

The challenges facing the town are similar to problems encountered throughout Europe, as social media and movies have publicized places that have been overwhelmed.

In Italy's Dolomite Mountains, four farmers have installed turnstiles on a popular walking trail, so they can charge people walking across their land.

The move, which is likely illegal, is part of a protest against overtourism, which saw 8,000 people use the remote trail one day last week.

"It's a cry for help," farmer Georg Rabanser was quoted by The Telegraph newspaper as saying.

"We were hoping for a call from the provincial government but we received nothing, just hot air, nothing of substance."

He said farmers want the authorities to limit the number of people visiting the area because of the damage they cause, and the litter they leave behind.

And overtourism is also affecting cities, including Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Barcelona in Spain, Cambridge in England, and Venice in Italy, which have seen protests by local people frustrated with the problems visitors cause.

In the Montmartre area of Paris in France, the quaint cafes and houses now attract so many visitors that resident Michele Barriere said it resembles Disneyland.

"Montmartre has become an amusement park, and we are the attractions. Soon they'll be throwing us peanuts," she said, claiming that visitors now outnumber the area's 27,000 residents 423 to one.

Barriere said people have increasingly visited since the end of the pandemic lockdowns, with the Paris Olympic Games adding to its allure and movies, including Amelie and the Netflix series Emily in Paris, ramping up its popularity.

That popularity, Barriere said, has driven out neighborhood businesses and pushed up real estate prices, as apartments have been converted into tourism accommodation, prompting her and others to ask the authorities to reverse the trend.