Spain and Portugal issue warning to UK tourists after 'limit has been reached'
Spain and Portugal have warned UK tourists a "limit" has been reached. As visitor numbers hit record levels in southern Europe, some residents are surrounded entirely by tourist flats, with European Union holidaymakers warned.
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, the Guardian newspaper has reported.
“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.”
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“If I need sugar or if I have an emergency, there’s no door I can knock on,” said Alex in his discussion with the national newspaper this weekend. “We are planning on moving because I can no longer handle not having a community.”
A Portuguese local said: “It’s just totally different now. To be honest, you don’t know anybody … it’s like being in a hotel. It makes you a bit anxious sometimes." He went on and added: “It’s a bit of a lottery because you never know if they are going to behave or not.”
“I’m fighting here, we’re all fighting here, because I think we’ve got to do it,” another resident said. “But it makes me cry sometimes because the landlord, as the owner, has the last say. So if he doesn’t want to renew the lease, he’s got all the right to do so.”
“I’m a sociable person, I really am. But it gets to the point that when I see somebody with a suitcase, I just turn away,” she said. “And I know it’s not their fault. I’m a tourist too, because my husband and I, we’ve travelled often. And now I’m at the other end.”