Spain has seen many overtourism protests this year, but one small village has been making its grievances known in a very unusual way.

In the Galician village of O Hío in northwest Spain, locals took it upon themselves to protest against the volume of tourists by blocking zebra crossings.

Walking up and down them for a total of 37 minutes, they caused total traffic gridlock – worsening the exact problem they hoped to highlight.

Nevertheless, residents stand by their decision.

Why are Spanish locals blocking zebra crossings?

“Traffic problems are already common, but this year they have tripled at least,” resident Mercedes Villar told local newspaper La Voz de Galicia. “It’s an avalanche of cars that not only pollutes but also affects everyone’s lives because they park wherever they want. We have the right to live too.”

Locals from the small coastal village say, while they’re not against tourism per se, they want authorities to find a mutually beneficial solution so that residents and visitors can co-exist happily.

They say their driveways are being blocked, traffic accidents are increasingly common and that parking-controlling yellow lines are being ignored.

“The protest was meant to raise awareness and sound the alarm,” another villager told La Voz. “We want people to be civil and understanding and, if they see that there is no parking space, to leave, as we all have to do in any city.”

Rogue parking by tourists creates ‘danger’ for locals

Villar, who is the spokesperson for the residents’ association, added that while locals tend to park their cars properly, visitors who don’t are creating “a situation of insecurity and danger”.

Villagers raised concerns that the situation causes access problems for emergency vehicles, citing residents who needed to be collected by ambulance, but found the exits from their houses blocked or their transport delayed due to the sheer number of vehicles on the streets.

Speaking to La Voz, Villar added that the significant amount of traffic had led to “uncivil” behaviour, including visitors littering the roads and parking areas.

She also says that too much traffic has led to the deterioration of some roads. “We want orderly and polite tourism that respects the environment. This is a paradise, but paradises also get ruined,” she said.

Locals have been invited to discuss their complaints

Like many Spanish people protesting against overtourism, Villar believes that the growing popularity of her local area has a lot to do with social media’s impact.

“This is sold as a beautiful place with no people, but now that is not true,” she explained, adding that residents tend to avoid beaches during tourist season as they are simply too busy.

She hopes that the zebra crossing protests will have laid bare how “annoyed” locals are with the situation.

It seems to have worked – in response, the local council has invited disgruntled locals to a meeting to discuss their complaints later in September.

From Cantabria in the north to Málaga in the south, growing numbers of Spanish people are calling for the government to change the face of mass tourism, which they believe is getting out of hand.

They say its impact is having a negative effect on property prices and rents as well as standard of living for residents.

Lanette Canen and Johan Bodin gave up life on land to become seaborne nomads on a years-long cruise.

Months later, the couple has yet to spend a night at sea. Their ship, the Odyssey, is stuck in Belfast undergoing repair work that has postponed its scheduled May departure for a three-and-a-half-year round-the-world voyage.

Bodin said Friday that they have enjoyed their pit stop in the Northern Ireland capital, but “when we’d visited every pub and tried every fish and chips place and listened to all the places that have Irish music, then we were ready to go elsewhere.”

“We’re ready to set sail, for sure,” added Canen.

What’s the appeal of a continuous cruise?

Villa Vie Residences’ Odyssey is the latest venture in the tempest-tossed world of continuous cruising.

It offers travellers the chance to buy a cabin and live at sea on a ship circumnavigating the globe. On its maiden voyage, it is scheduled to visit 425 ports in 147 countries on seven continents.

Cabins – billed as “villas” – start at $99,999 (€90,369), plus a monthly fee, for the operational life of the vessel, at least 15 years. Passengers can also sign up for segments of the voyage lasting weeks or months.

Marketing material, aimed at adventurous retirees and restless digital nomads, touts “the incredible opportunity to own a home on a floating paradise,” complete with a gym, spa, putting green, entertainment facilities, a business center and an “experiential culinary center.”

But first, the Odyssey has to get out of the dock.

When is the Odyssey finally setting sail?

It’s now at Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard, where the doomed RMS Titanic was built more than a century ago.

Villa Vie Residences’ marketing manager Sebastian Stokkendal said the company had been “humbled by the scale of what it takes to reactivate a 30-year-old vessel from a four-year layup.”

He said that after work on the rudder shafts, steel work and engine overhauls, the ship is almost ready to depart.

“We expect a very anticipated successful launch next week where we will head to Bremerhaven, Amsterdam, Lisbon, then across the Atlantic for our Caribbean segment,” he said in an email to The Associated Press (AP).

How are the Odyssey passengers biding their time?

In the meantime, the company has been paying living expenses for about 200 passengers.

They are allowed onto the ship during the day and provided with meals and entertainment, but can’t stay overnight.

The cruise line has paid for hotels in Belfast and in other European cities for those who want to explore more of Europe while they wait.

Passenger Holly Hennessey from Florida told the BBC she can’t leave Northern Ireland because of her shipmate – her cat, Captain.

She said that at first “I thought I’d go home, or the ship sent some people to the Canary Islands. And then I found out that because I have my cat with me, I can’t even leave.”

“I want to thank Belfast for being so welcoming to all of us,” she said.

Bodin and Canen – a Swede and an American who met when both lived in Hawaii – have used the time to travel to Italy, Croatia and Bodin’s hometown in Sweden, where they are awaiting news of the Odyssey.

Canen plans to run her Arizona-based auto-glass business from the ship. Bodin, a carpenter, is running a YouTube channel documenting the couple’s temporarily stalled journey.

The residential cruising business has proved a troubled one

Built in 1993 and operated under different names by several cruise lines over the years before being becalmed by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Odyssey was bought by Villa Vie Residences in 2023.

The residential cruising business has proved a troubled one. MS The World, launched in 2002, is currently the only vessel of the type in operation. Another venture, Life at Sea, cancelled its planned three-year voyage late last year after failing to secure a ship.

Canen and Bodin put down a deposit on Life at Sea – they got their money back – and also gambled on Victoria Cruises, another stalled venture from which they are still seeking a refund.

But they are undeterred.

“We might be crazy, stupid, naive or resilient,” Bodin said. “I don’t know, you can put any label on it that you want.”

Increased investment and the benefits of a changing climate are steadily combining to turbo charge the British wine industry – but can it pose a real threat to Europe’s big beasts?

Data from industry association WineGB suggests that the number of hectares of land devoted to wine production in Britain has doubled over the past decade to about 4,000.

The number of wineries has increased by more than 50 per cent to 200, and the number of vineyards has doubled to about 950.

Quality over quantity

But size isn’t everything. Despite impressive growth, the UK wine industry is still dwarfed by its heavyweight European rivals. The UK doesn’t have the heft to go toe-to-toe with Europe’s best yet, but it can challenge them on quality.

When it comes to the taste test British wines punch well-above their weight. Chapel Down group, one of England’s biggest wine producers, has racked-up an impressive tally of international wine competition victories over the years.

Last year the group enjoyed 28 competition successes, including scooping gold medals in the International Wine Challenge and the Decanter World Wines awards, that judge more than 18,000 wines from 57 countries.

Chapel Down chief executive Andrew Carter has his eyes set on creating an international acclaimed wine region in the UK, and he’s getting the investment in to back-up his big ambitions.

Cash injection

London City investors, not known for risking their cash on speculative ventures, are putting their money behind the British wine industry in a bid to take it to the next level.

Nigel Wray, a well-known City investor has a 14 per cent stake in Chapel Down, while Lord Spencer of Alresford, whose investments span real estate, fintech, cybertechnology and oil and gas exploration, has a 26 per cent stake in Chapel Down.

Former UK Conservative party chairman, philanthropist, international businessman and billionaire, Lord Ashcroft, has acquired a 66 per cent controlling stake in Gusbourne, an award-winning producer with vineyards in the South West of England (Kent and Sussex).

Financial backing is helping the British wine industry expand. Gusbourne, which already has 93 hectares of mature vineyards, has acquired 55 hectares of land in Kent, ready for planting in the coming years.

Exports are doing well

Top quality British wine is finding new markets across the world. Exports account for a fifth of Gusbourne’s net revenue, with sales in 35 markets including Scandinavia, Japan and the United States. Cracking the Chinese market would turbo-boost sales further, but geo-political worries are slowing investment decisions.

So while Southern Europe’s traditional wine growing regions struggle with rising temperatures, making some vineyards less viable, Britain is laying the foundation for a concerted crack at the big beasts of wine production.