Latest news with #SouthernEuropeNetworkAgainstTouristification
Local Spain
26-05-2025
- Climate
- Local Spain
KEY POINTS: Everything that changes in Spain in June 2025
Last day to file your tax return online June 30th is officially the end of the tax campaign for earnings in 2024, but if you want to pay via direct debit or if you are owed any money back and what to be paid directly into your bank account, you must do it by June 25th. School's break up for summer June also sees the end of the school year and the start of the official summer season across Spain. Most schools in most regions will have their last day on Friday June 20th, but some may continue on an extra week or so, depending on the type of school and area. It's always better to check with your local authority for exact term dates. Anti-tourism protests Overtourism protests organised by the Southern Europe Network Against Touristification are due to take place on June 15th across many major cities and islands. As well as marches through crowded tourist areas, they are planning picket lines at airports and famous landmarks, blockades for tour buses and occupations of key tourist sites. Changes to ATMs in Spain According to the Accessibility Law approved in May 2023, ATMs must be accessible to all users regardless of their abilities or condition. This means that starting from June 28th, all ATMs in Spain will have to aim to provide information through multiple sensory channels. This includes bigger font, high-contrast screens, along with voice guidance systems and braille keyboards. Banks will have until June 29th, 2030, to adapt existing ATMs to the new regulations. Scam calls from abroad to be blocked in June The Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Service has called for phone companies to block spam calls from abroad. The new rules came into effect on March 7th and established a maximum period of three months until June 7th for operators to begin blocking calls. Telefónica has already begun blocking calls and SMS messages originating from other countries that use Spanish numbers. June to be hot and dry Spain's State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has shared its forecast for the next few weeks. It has stated that "the week between May 26 and June 1st will be warmer than normal throughout Spain, especially in the interior of the Peninsula." Temperatures could even reach or exceed 34°C in large areas of the country, especially in the valleys of major rivers by the beginning of next month. June will be "Hot with little rain and predominantly stable weather in most of Spain," the agency wrote in a message on the social network X. Madrid to launch 'Operation Tarmac' Madrid City Council has launched an 'Operation Tarmac' campaign, which will involve renovating 256 streets across the city throughout the summer months, starting in June. Roads will be assessed for renovation depending on their level of wear and the average amount traffic they support. The total investment of the works will cost €12.2 million and cover 604,425 square metres. After nearly two years of renovations, the Sant Antoni-Joan Oliver municipal library in Barcelona's Eixample district will reopen on June 2nd. The renovation has improved the air-conditioning, lighting, and thermal insulation at an investment of €3.15 million. There will also be a new area for children. Possible nationwide healthcare strike on June 13th The medical unions, which called a doctors' strike in February for May 23rd, have now postponed the strike until June 13th. The strike committee is formed by the Spanish Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM) and the Andalusian Medical Union (SMA) who have been protesting Framework Statute for healthcare workers. This includes the incompatibility of working in both the private and public sectors at the same time and the regulation of on-call shifts. If it goes ahead, the strike will be at a national level and last the whole day on June 13th. Corpus Christi celebrations take place The Corpus Christi celebrations across Spain will take place this year around June 19th. The festivities commemorate the body of Christ and occur nine weeks after Easter. The festival is celebrated very differently across the country. In the Catalan town of Sitges, Elche de la Sierra in Albacete, and some places in Tenerife, for example locals make brightly-coloured patterned carpets on the streets, made of either flower petals or sawdust. In Granada, they have elaborate processions, while in Barcelona they decorate the city's fountains with flowers and place an egg to 'dance' in the water. Noche de San Juan June is also the month Spain celebrates the Noche de San Juan or Nit de Sant Joan in Catalonia. Saint John's Eve occurs on the night of June 23rd and sees Spaniards across the country celebrating with bonfires and fireworks. It marks St John the Baptist's birth as well as one of the shortest nights of the year. Again, this festival is different, depending on where you are in the country. In Galicia, Pagan traditions of banishing evil mix with religious ones as bonfires are set up on the beaches and people jump over them for good luck. In Catalonia, towns and cities go all out to celebrate Sant Joan with firecrackers, fireworks, and traditional sweet coca bread. And in Alicante Las Hogueras or Les Fogueres take place, which similar to Valencia's Las Fallas festival where large papier-mâché sculptures are burnt. Batalla del Vino Another festival taking place in June is the Batalla del Vino or Wine Battle in the Riojan town Haro. Here on June 29th locals gather for a giant wine fight. Everyone meets on a hillside outside the town dressed in white and by the time the fight is over, everyone's clothes have turned to shades of red and purple grapes.
Local Spain
05-05-2025
- Local Spain
What to expect from the mass tourism protests across Spain in June
The Southern Europe Network Against Touristification (SET) met in Barcelona last week to discuss more solutions for problems caused by overtourism and called for mass protests on Sunday June 15th "and the urgent need to limit the growth of tourism'. The planned marches and disruptions are due to take place in cities not only across Spain but in Italy and Portugal too. Spanish cities and islands that will be joining the cause in Spain include Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza, the Canary Islands, and San Sebastián, but it's likely that others could join such as Málaga and Seville which have organised their own overtourism protests in the past. Therefore, this will the first time that all these anti-mass tourism protests take place on the same day. There was a similar approach in early April when tens of thousands of citizens across 40 cities in Spain took to the streets to demand more effective measures to combat the country's housing crisis. Other cities reportedly taking part across southern Europe include Naples, Palermo, Venice and Lisbon. Organisations that make up the SET network refer to the need for the demonstrations to "make it clear that territories are not for sale'. As well as marches through crowded tourist areas, they are planning picket lines at airports and famous landmarks, blockades for tour buses and occupations of key tourist sites. Issues the protesters hope to highlight including housing shortages due vacation rentals displacing local residents, steep rises in rental costs, overcrowded public transport systems, as well environmental degradation caused by the sheer number of visitors. The network claim that overtourism ultimately "impoverishes people, makes it impossible for them to access affordable housing, and concentrates the economy and jobs in this sector, which is as unjust as it is exploitative'. They have also cited environmental reasons for the marches saying that tourism creates 'an ecological crisis, pollutes water, air, and soil, accounting for 9 percent of the emissions responsible for global warming'. So far this is all that has been announced, it's not yet clear if other cities will join in or how big and how far-reaching these protests will be. If you are planning on travelling on June 15th or will be on holiday in a major Spanish tourism hotspot on that day it's worth noting that there could be delays at airports and other transport hubs. You may also want to avoid big tourist sights such as Barcelona's Sagrada Família.
New York Times
29-04-2025
- New York Times
European Anti-Tourism Groups Plan June 15 Disruptions
Travelers to Europe, mark your calendars (and bring your raincoats). On June 15, activist groups across southern Europe are planning to stage protests against tourism. Although the precise form of those demonstrations has not been decided, it's a pretty safe bet that water guns will be involved. Last weekend in Barcelona, about 120 representatives from Venice; Lisbon; Palermo, Italy; and a dozen other cities joined leaders of the Southern Europe Network Against Touristification in calling for a coordinated day of action to raise awareness about what they called 'the urgent need to limit the growth of tourism.' The tactics discussed included marches, picketing at airports, obstructing tourists' entry to historic sites and blockading tour buses. Driven by rising rents, housing shortages, pollution and overcrowded public transportation, the call signals a continuation — and possibly an escalation — of the demonstrations that erupted across Europe in 2024. At a protest along Barcelona's famed Las Ramblas boulevard last July, a handful of participants pulled out water guns and began squirting tourists. The tactic attracted global media attention, which is why, this time around, the activists have adopted the toys as an effective symbol of their resistance. In Barcelona, where the municipal government has taken measures to reduce the impact of overtourism (the city received 15.5 million tourists in 2024), such as curbing new hotel construction and banning Airbnb after 2028, tourism officials greeted the news of the planned June 15 protests with dismay. 'It's unfortunate that global anti-tourism movements chose to announce their proposals in Barcelona, when Barcelona is the city that is doing the most for sustainable urban tourism,' said Mateu Hernández, director general of the Barcelona tourism office. With international travel expected to increase this year, the summer of 2025 looks likely to see other protests proliferate. Already, in the Canary Islands, a demonstration against tourism is scheduled for May 18, with organizers suggesting they will move beyond the kind of marches that brought 60,000 to the streets last year to also include occupying what they called 'symbolic' tourist sites. Participants in the Barcelona workshops capped their gathering with their own symbolic protest. On Sunday morning, the activists, some wielding water guns, met outside the Sagrada Família church (the city's most popular tourist attraction), surrounded a tour bus filled with passengers, and hung a banner announcing the June 15 demonstrations from its windshield. 'We don't want to hurt anyone,' said Elena Boschi, an English-language teacher and activist from Genoa, Italy. 'We just want them to be mindful of the impact that their presence is having on these places and the people who live in them.' Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
