Explained: Why thousands have taken to the streets in cities across southern Europe

Is over-tourism destroying Europe? Locals seem to think so as cities across Italy, Portugal and Spain witnessed a weekend of widespread protests. Even the world's most visited movement, the Louvre, wasn't spared

The squirt guns returned to the streets of Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday (June 15) as thousands gathered for long-planned protests against mass tourism in cities across southern Europe.
In Genoa, Italy, demonstrators rolled suitcases down the city centre’s narrow paved streets, as part of what they called a “noisy stroll”. In Lisbon, Portugal, protesters carried a handmade effigy of the city’s patron saint from his namesake church to the site of a future five-star hotel. And on the Spanish island of Mallorca, locals stopped a double-decker tourist bus on Saturday (June 14), setting off flares and hanging a banner on its side.