"While some Barcelona residents sought to repel a tsunami of tourists with plastic water pistols, a neighborhood association in Santiago de Compostela opted for a friendlier approach: a guide to good manners for visitors to their town, the endpoint of the Catholic world's most famous pilgrimage."
"Translated into several languages, the group posted it throughout the northwestern Spanish city and distributed it at its ever-growing number of hostels. It reminded tourists to keep noise down, respect traffic rules and use plastic protectors on hiking poles to avoid damaging the narrow cobblestone streets, among other things."
""We do not have tourism-phobia. We have always lived in harmony with tourism, but when it gets out of hand, when the pressure goes beyond what is reasonable, that is when rejection arises," said Roberto Almuíña, president of the neighborhood association in the old town that's a UNESCO World Heritage site."
Santiago de Compostela's old town and cathedral area are overwhelmed by tourist numbers that have displaced longtime residents and transformed central public spaces into areas dominated by outsiders. A neighborhood association produced a multilingual guide urging visitors to keep noise down, follow traffic rules and use plastic protectors on hiking poles to protect narrow cobblestone streets. Those measures have had limited effect: large groups still dominate streets, bikes travel the wrong way and hiking pole tips cause damage, while social media documents complaints. The Camino de Santiago pilgrimage's modern surge has intensified pressure on the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Read at Fast Company
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