Maria watches her rent climb for the third time this year. Her modest flat in Kigali where her big brother once rented in 2016 to study now costs more. The culprit isn’t corporate greed or government policy. It’s the steady stream of tourists who’ve discovered her neighbourhood’s cobblestone charm, transforming family homes into Airbnb goldmines and furnished apartments.
This is tourism’s unspoken cost: the systematic displacement of local communities by an industry that promises prosperity but often delivers poverty in its wake. Across the globe, destinations are grappling with a cruel paradox, the more successful they become at attracting visitors, the more unliveable they become for residents.
Tourism-driven gentrification operates with ruthless efficiency. Property owners quickly realise that a week’s worth of tourist bookings can exceed 6 month’s local rent. Housing stock shifts from long-term residential use to short-term holiday lets. Landlords/Landlady’s targeting tourists’ deeper pockets, close their doors. The fabric of communities unravels as residents are priced out of areas forced to live in distant suburbs.
In East Africa, Kenya’s coastal region exemplifies this pattern. Malindi and Watamu, once thriving fishing communities, have seen property values soar as international tourists seek beachfront paradise. Local fishermen find themselves unable to afford homes within walking distance of waters their fathers once worked. The Mijikenda people, indigenous to the coast, watch their ancestral lands transform into exclusive resorts whilst they’re pushed inland to settlements with poor infrastructure and limited economic opportunities.
Tanzania’s Zanzibar tells a similar story. Stone Town’s UNESCO World Heritage status brought global attention and tourist dollars, but also triggered a housing crisis. Young Zanzibaris increasingly move to the mainland, unable to afford life on an island where a basic flat costs more than many earn in a year. The irony cuts deep: the very culture and community that made these places attractive to visitors is being eroded by their arrival.
Europe offers starker examples of tourism’s impact on affordability. Portugal’s capital has become a poster child for tourist-driven displacement. Lisbon’s historic neighbourhoods, once affordable working-class areas, now command premium prices. The Portuguese government’s Golden Visa programme, offering residency to foreign property investors, amplified the problem. Locals joke bitterly about their city becoming a theme park for visitors whilst they’re forced to live in distant suburbs.
Amsterdam presents perhaps the most extreme case. The Dutch capital’s housing market has reached breaking point, with the average property price now exceeding €500,000. The city’s compact geography means limited housing stock, whilst its liberal reputation attracts millions of visitors annually. Young professionals find themselves commuting from neighbouring cities, unable to afford living in Amsterdam despite working there. The situation has become so dire that the city council has implemented strict limits on tourist accommodation, though critics argue these measures came too late.
Behind these statistics lie human stories of displacement and loss. In Malindi, 34-year-old fisherman Hassan Omar describes watching his childhood neighbourhood become unrecognisable: “The beach where I learned to fish is now a private resort. My family’s compound was sold to developers. We moved further inland, but the work is still here by the sea. Now I spend two hours each day just travelling to my boat.”
Similarly, in Lisbon’s Mouraria district, elderly residents speak of feeling like strangers in their own neighbourhood. Cafés that once served locals now offer “authentic Portuguese experiences” to tourists at triple the price. The Portuguese language gives way to English on shopfronts, and the rhythm of daily life shifts to accommodate visitors’ schedules rather than residents’ needs.
The tourism industry can no longer ignore its role in displacing local communities. Sustainable tourism isn’t just about environmental protection, it’s about ensuring destinations remain liveable for residents. The COVID-19 pandemic offered a glimpse of cities without tourists, reminding us that places exist primarily for those who call them home, not those who visit them.
The choice facing destinations is stark: implement meaningful reforms now or watch communities disintegrate under the weight of unsustainable tourism. The cost of inaction isn’t just economic, it’s the loss of authentic cultures and communities that made these places worth visiting in the first place.
Tourism’s promise of prosperity rings hollow when locals can no longer afford to live in their own communities. The industry must evolve beyond its extractive model towards one that genuinely benefits destinations and their residents. The alternative is a world of hollow theme parks masquerading as authentic places, where the only locals visitors encounter are those serving them coffee or cleaning their hotel rooms.
The time for comfortable platitudes about tourism’s benefits has passed. The industry must confront its impact on local affordability with the same urgency it applies to filling hotel rooms. Only then can tourism fulfil its promise of mutual benefit rather than one-sided exploitation.
Viable Solutions
Addressing tourism’s impact on local affordability requires coordinated action across multiple levels. Cities must implement robust regulation of short-term rentals, following Barcelona’s lead in freezing new tourist accommodation licences in the city centre. Housing stock needs protection through zoning laws that reserve residential areas for long-term residents.
Tourism taxes, whilst controversial, can fund affordable housing initiatives and infrastructure improvements that benefit locals. Vienna’s social housing model demonstrates how cities can maintain affordability even whilst attracting visitors, nearly 60% of residents live in social or subsidised housing, insulating them from market fluctuations.
Local governments must also diversify their economies beyond tourism. Over-reliance on visitor spending creates vulnerability to external shocks and reduces bargaining power with the tourism industry. Cities like Copenhagen have successfully balanced tourism with strong local economies, maintaining affordability through economic diversity.
