Spain’s holiday destinations are being hit by waves of anti-tourist protests, but it’s not the first time locals have lashed out against mass tourism.
One day in 1987, protesters gathered outside Dabolim Airport in Gao, India, to greet a group of West German tourists.
The activists, part of the Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fouz (Vigilant Goans’ Army), threw cow poo and rotten shrimp at the bus that was taking the tourists to their beach resorts.
The locals also distributed leaflets in German to convey their stern “Tourists Go Home” message, according to the Hindustan Times.
Gao was a busy tourist destination. Hippies would travel there in droves during the 1970s and occupy the beaches.
In 1985 alone, 775,000 tourists arrived in Goa with foreigners accounting for 12 percent of the total number of people.
This swelled to 1.3 million tourists arriving in the region in 2002, with 16.8 percent being foreign visitors.
But long before the region hit the one-million mark, anger among the local populace grew and they began resisting the government’s plan for tourism development.
