Travel warning news: Anti-tourism graffiti spreads to popular holiday destination Athens in Greece demanding tourists to 'go home'

Anti-tourist graffiti has been spotted in another popular hotspot as the sentiment travels across holiday destinations. "Tourists go home" and "No Tourists No Hipsters" are among the messages that have been sprayed on the walls in Athens, Greece. 

A large piece of graffiti that says "Tourists enjoy your stay in the cemetery of Europe” also covers most of the side of a house seemingly referring to Athens' reputation as the continental capital of antiquity and a place where more and more people are being priced out. Locals have fumed at the price of properties rising due to the spread of Airbnbs and other holiday lets in the Greek city. 

Residents have also long complained of large numbers of tourists blocking the streets and causing excessive noise. Short-term holiday rental figures have surged by 500% in less than a decade in Greece as a record breaking number of tourists now visit the country. 

Last month protesters hit the streets demanding change. They chanted: "They are taking our houses while they live in the Maldives". 

Local Anna Theodorakis, who was forced out of her home in Metaxourgio, Athens, told France24: "I think the answer is to go in the streets and block everything and just not do something because people are losing their homes." Dimitri, a property developer said: "80% of this neighbourhood are Airbnbs. Tourists who come here want to see the Greek culture, so if no more Greeks are living here, tourists won't want to come."

Last year American outlet Foders put Athens on its 'No Travel' list, arguing that the historic settlement is being eroded and damaged due to overtourism. It wrote: “There’s fear that if the surge of visitors continues unchecked, the most Athenian boroughs will culturally erode and physically disappear”.

The graffiti comes as Palma in Majorca is set to hold an anti tourism protest on Saturday, May 25. The newspaper says that the organisers have called for the protest to “say ENOUGH to tourist overcrowding”. The organisers said: “On the 25th of May we have to take to the streets. To say ENOUGH to tourist overcrowding, to say ENOUGH to the destruction of the territory, to say ENOUGH to the lack of protection suffered by the people who live on the islands.”