This is the moment anti-tourism activists in Spain filmed themselves using a hammer to vandalise tourist flats.
Footage obtained by the Spanish Eye shows a masked individual walking down a street in Mallorca, one of the busiest holiday destinations in the country.
The person can be seen spraying a red ‘X’ over the blue accommodation sign that indicates the property is a registered tourist rental.
They are then seen using a hammer to batter the key pad and lockboxes used by Airbnb owners to store keys for guests.
The video was uploaded by the leftist activist group Arran Mallorca.
The clip was shared just days after thousands of Mallorca locals took to the streets to rally against ‘overtourism’ of the island.
At least 8,000 fed-up locals (activists put the number at 30,000), marched around two kilometres through Palma de Mallorca from around 6pm on Sunday, June 15.
Footage taken by the Spanish Eye shows how placards held up by marchers read: ‘Mallorca is not for sale’ and ‘Mallorca is not your cash cow… go home.’
Others read: ‘Tourists go home… refugees welcome’, ‘enough is enough’ and ‘your vacations, our anxiety.’
Children taking part in the protest were seen carrying water pistols, with plans to spray holidaymakers as they passed on by.
Large groups of protesters were heard chanting ‘tourists go home’ as they made their way through the city.
The demonstrations took place in major destinations including Barcelona, Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, San Sebastian, Granada, Tenerife and Malaga.
Other European destinations involved in the action included Venice in Italy and Lisbon in Portugal.
The action is designed to ‘call attention to the social and environmental costs of overtourism.’
The protests were organised by the Southern Europe Network Against Touristification (SET), and are supported by local activist groups.
Many locals living in tourist hotspots in Spain believe the industry’s model has become too excessive.
They say the numbers of visitors continue to increase year by year, creating an increasing demand on local resources.
They also complain that the overwhelming amount of tourist activity is causing environmental pollution, particularly in Tenerife, where natural landscapes are not being properly protected by local authorities, while a surge in pleasure boats and sewage waste are polluting the marine environment, they claim.
More importantly, the explosion of Airbnb-style properties has seen property prices surge over the past five to 10 years.
In holiday hotspots, landlords are choosing to rent to tourists instead of selling or renting to local families.
This is stripping housing supply and making the available stock far more expensive and out of reach for a growing number of locals.
