Tourists visiting one part of Spain are being given a harsh nickname by locals living in the towns they are travelling to.
Residents of capital Madrid, who are escaping the city to visit towns and villages in the Galicia region, have been given a funny moniker by locals critical of their behaviour.
The Spanish domestic tourists are being referred to ‘fodechinchos’ which, when translated, means ‘fish thieves’.
In recent weeks a growing number of Spaniards and other tourists have been flocking to the country’s Atlantic coastline to escape both the heat and overcrowding in other parts of the country.
Speaking to the Guardian, Miguel Vega explained exactly what the new nickname actually means. He said: “A fodechinchos is a visitor who’s a bit of an idiot, but basically a cocky tourist from Madrid who doesn’t respect local traditions.”
Whilst the name is mainly used in reference to Madrid-based tourists, others have said that it can also be used to describe someone from outside the area.
The migration of people from one part of Spain to another this summer comes as the country continues to be battered by intense heat and overtourism in other parts of the country. It is this trend that has led to thousands of people taking to the streets in protest of the impact of tourism on local people.
As the protests continue, the CEO of TUI Sebastian Ebel has said that they have to be “taken seriously” weeks after 20,000 people took to the streets of Palma, Majorca in the Balearic Islands.
Mr Ebel told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “It is important to analyse what motivates people, how much tourism they want and how much they don’t.
“It is difficult there…if foreign tourists buy practically all the houses because they have 10,000 euros more. I always like to refer to the Danish model; a German cannot buy a house for private use in Denmark.”
Mr Ebel’s comments on the economic impact of overtourism highlight how tourism can benefit an economy but harm it’s residents who sometimes earn less than visitors.
It is this disparity that has led to discontent rising in other parts of Europe such as Croatia, that is witnessing brewing anti-tourism discontent.
Speaking to the Express last week, one local living in the seaside city of Split remarked: “I would think that mass tourism never brought anything good to anyone, especially the people living here. So, I mean, it disrupts things.
“Definitely. We live off of tourism. That’s mass tourism. Does this have an impact on us every day? I would say yes.
“There’s a whole lot of people here. And of course for me, for example, in my building where I live, [people] rent their apartment and then you have tourists and the people are on vacation, right? And they’re having parties and they’re making a lot of noise, and it just disrupts everything.”
