Furious locals enraged at the effect of so-called over-tourism on their city have resorted to glueing up tourist flat key boxes.
Pamplona is a Spanish city that is famous for its annual bull-running festival, hosting a week-long party which attracts around a million visitors from around the world.
But locals are totally fed up at the pressure that tourist flats and accommodation is having on the local rental and property market – so much so they have resorted to extreme measures to have their voices heard.
In May angry protestors damaged key boxes outside tourist flats by pouring in glue or silicone in the run-up to the festival.
The left-wing coalition group that runs the city council has now made the decision not to grant any more licences for tourist flats in the old town, reports i.
The council blamed “rising house prices, both for sale and rent, the worsening difficulties of [the] commercial sector as well as the loss of identity of the historic centre” for the ban which will come into force later this year.
It said: “When the tourist apartments offered have very high prices compared to the supply of permanent housing, it generates tension mainly in the rental market and substantial increases in housing prices.
Joxe Abauerra, of the Basque separatist EH Bildu party said: “We are taking this measure because we [don’t want] to allow any more tourist flats in the city centre.
“This is an important measure. We support sustainable tourism, and we want to preserve the city centre as a residential area and for local commerce.”
There have been protests across Spain from people concerned about how what they say is over-tourism and how it’s affecting their lives.
This includes anti-tourism protests in tourist hotspots including Barcelona, Tenerife, Majorca and the other Balearic Islands.
Majorca recently experienced a 10 percent decrease in tourism, new figures have revealed, with many holidaymakers vowing not to return in light of the protests against mass tourism.
In a letter published by the Majorca Daily Bulletin on Wednesday, one unnamed British holidaymaker told the newspaper of the problems they have encountered in their most recent visit to the Island.
The author of the letter, who asked for their name to not be disclosed in the newspaper, wrote that their pregnant daughter had “Tourists go home” shouted at her when she responded to a question on where she was from whilst sitting in traffic.