‘I have no neighbours’: overtourism pushes residents in Spain and Portugal to the limit
‘I have no neighbours’: overtourism pushes residents in Spain and Portugal to the limit
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As visitor numbers hit record levels in southern Europe, some residents are surrounded entirely by tourist flats. When her husband, who had cancer at the time, took a tumble in the couple’s sixth-floor flat last year, Maria frantically wondered who she could call for help to lift him.
![[Ashifa Kassam]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/07/12/Ashifa_Kassam.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
In another building, another era, she might have dashed next door to ask a neighbour. But it wasn’t an option in her 11-unit building in central Lisbon, where tourist flats had proliferated and turned long-term residents into a rarity. She resorted to calling the fire service. But the moment stuck with her, hinting at the community she had lost as a ceaseless rotation of tourists moved in and out of all but three of the building’s units.
![[Demonstrators protest against high rent prices at Plaza Urquinaona in Barcelona, in November. Residents have been blaming tourism for the local housing crisis and soaring rent]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/def8f0861690c14985127222b4a2a63ed75dad7a/0_0_4000_2668/master/4000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“I really miss it. We should be a kind of social network,” said Maria, who asked that her full name not be published. “And that social network doesn’t exist.”. The 71-year-old is among those who have been left to grapple with southern Europe’s overtourism problem in the most intimate of ways: trading neighbours for a steady stream of suitcase-totting tourists in their buildings’ elevators, hallways and lobbies.
![[Tourists dragging suitcases following a tour guide through the narrow streets of Ciutat Vella, Barcelona]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e4f51815342100555b3e11047c2e96d9bf3c4db5/755_318_4245_3035/master/4245.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
As tourist arrivals swell to record numbers in Spain and Portugal, some residents have found themselves living in buildings where tourist flats make up the majority of units. In the most extreme cases, residents have been left on their own, surrounded entirely by tourist flats.
![[Joao Povoa with his dog in Lisbon's Santa Maria Maior freguesia, or civil parish, where he lives with his partner]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cd3ea64832800f29a517d07da4e5fca74eb341a3/0_187_1200_1407/master/1200.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“It’s very weird. Imagine, I have no neighbours, even though I’m in the middle of a big city,” said Alex, who lives in a building in Lisbon where every single other unit is rented via platforms such as Airbnb. “It’s like I live in a ghost place. There’s plenty of people, I just don’t know anybody.”.
![[A tram at the centre of a street in Lisbon]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b89093052b9e07fffea03b6b612b3edab6c5e4c2/0_0_3738_2523/master/3738.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
