Citizens have concentrated this Tuesday before the tourist office of the Cinq Cantons district of Angelu, to protest against the model of mass tourism implemented in Iparralde. They have denounced the damage that this economic activity has to the housing sector and the environment and have advocated the search for an alternative model.

In recent years, the massive arrival of tourists to Lapurdi has been massive. Activists who have concentrated on the protest have expressed this in the manifesto they have published. They claim that the mountains have become parks due to the “flooding” of people and that tailings have been deposited in forests and regattas. In addition to deteriorating natural spaces to guarantee economic interests, there have also been problems in the housing market. The increase in tourist rentals also occurs outside the tourist season, and speculation means that citizens do not have the possibility to rent or buy housing.

The congregates in Angelu have said that they are not against tourism, “but against this model of tourism.” In his view, “decades are the decisions taken by the French State and its wealthy classes, which have led the economy of the French Basque Country to tourism and associated services”. As an example of this route taken by the State, the tourist offices of Kanbo, Hendaia and Angelu have used the campaign to “sell the attractiveness” of Lapurdi and the ads on the Paris metro.

Proposed alternative

They have pointed out that tourism employs 1,200 people in Ipar Euskal Herria, but that workers in the sector work in precarious conditions. That is why, and because of the consequences of mass tourism, they have called for a change of model and a diversification of the economy: “To prioritize cultivation and the areas of work that cover the basic needs of the people who live in this village throughout the year.”