John was sitting outside a PalmaPalma de Mallorca is the capital city of the Spanish island of Mallorca. cafe when suddenly he heard a roar. He turned to see a stampede of people marching down the street towards him. As it drew close his heart sank. The marchers held up a banner reading: "Tourists out!".

Last Sunday, thousands of MallorcansPeople from the Spanish island of Mallorca. marched through the streets of Palma to protest overtourism. They carried model planes and cruise ships. Tourists claim they were abused and doused in water.

This is just the latest battle in a mounting conflict between locals and tourists. Spain - which had a record 85.1 million tourists last year - is the epicentre. 

Protesters have stormed through central BarcelonaA city in Spain's Catalonia region, known for its architecture and art. and campaigned against clothed tourists on a nudist beach.¹ Spanish cities are covered in anti-tourist posters.

But it is not just in Spain. Amsterdam has run adverts warning drunk tourists they will be arrested. Lisbon has stopped new short-term rentals. And Venice has introduced a tourist tax and limited group numbers.

There are several reasons for local anger. Tourists make cities more expensive to live in. "Every day I'm looking and every day the rent is higher", says Sonia, a Mallorcan.

They can cause chaos, as with the French woman who carved her name and a heart into the Leaning Tower of PisaThe bell tower of Pisa Cathedral in Italy. It leans over due to an unstable foundation. last summer. And there is a climate cost: tourism is responsible for 8% of worldwide CO2 emissionsWhen a gas is let off from something, like a car, it is an emission. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming..

Tourism, writes journalist Kathleen Rellihan, has some to stand for "destroying the souls of cities and pushing out its residents, trampling natural wonders, defaming ancient ruins and even ramping up the warming of our fragile planet".

Tourism is nothing new. Wealthy Romans travelled to Egypt to see the Pyramids. EnlightenmentAn intellectual movement of the eighteenth Century that ruthlessly criticised religion, traditions and inherited privilege. gentlemen undertook Grand ToursA traditional trip through Europe taken by upper-class European men in the 17th to 19th Centuries when they in their early twenties. . Travel was reserved for the very rich.

Mass tourism was pioneered by the VictorianThe era when Queen Victoria was on the British throne, from 1837 to 1901.  Thomas Cook.² He took temperanceModeration or self-restraint, especially with relation to alcohol. activists on tours around Britain, before branching further afield. His tours eventually became a hugely profitable business.

More recently, low-cost flights have made it easy for a huge number of people. Social media and word-of-mouth has helped to concentrate tourist interest in a select list of places.

Mallorca, for instance, has a population of 920,000 but receives about 14 million foreign visitors a year.³ Tourism is responsible for 45% of the Balearic IslandsAn archipelago of islands in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain. Mallorca is the largest island.' GDP. Visitors spent €109bn (£92bn) in Spain last year.⁴

The benefits of tourism are not only economic. For the tourist, it can open the mind to historic and artistic treasures, broaden the palette and expose one to other languages and ways of life.

One can be a responsible tourist. Stay away from hotspots. Eat and shop locally. Spend time in a place and get to know it, rather than treating it as a backdrop for a TikTok video.

Perhaps we should have to take a tourism test before we travel, showing that we know how to be a responsible tourist. Bad behaviour could be penalised with points, fines and temporary bans.

Do they have a point?

Yes: Imagine walking down your local street to find only people you do not know, none of whom speak your language, living in pleasure while you have to study and work. What could be more infuriating?

No: Is it a crime to want to see the world? Most tourists behave responsibly. Cities do not belong to their residents. Everyone is a tourist sometimes. A world without tourism would be a small-minded one.

Or... Tourism can be damaging. But it is not just the tourist's fault. Cities and countries should plan to match tourism, building new housing and transport to ease the lives of locals and visitors alike.

FOR YOUR SUMMER READING CHALLENGE CLUE GO TO STEP SIX IN THE SIX STEPS TO DISCOVERY BELOW.