A new harsh tactic to combat tourists has emerged in Europe. It uses some of the most popular tools among savvy travelers — namely social media and neural networks. Together, they create a frightening and repulsive image of a world “enslaved” by tourists.
Using AI to spread their ideas, activists are publishing grim scenarios of how a popular destination could turn into an overcrowded tourist nightmare. For instance, this has been happening in the popular Spanish resort town of Sóller, located on the northwest coast of Mallorca. Normally considered one of the most picturesque and attractive tourist spots in the Balearic Islands, Sóller has now become the subject of a campaign. Activists have created a page on one of the social networks called “Welcome to Sóllerland,” where they post AI-generated eerie images depicting an “imaginary future” in which the town is completely overrun by crowds of tourists.
The characters in these pictures are ordinary people: a young woman wearing a T-shirt with the words “I’m from here,” riding the famous Sóller train, surrounded by a dense crowd of tourists all dressed alike in black sunglasses and hats, holding smartphones to capture the passing landscapes. Another image shows a man wearing the same T-shirt standing in a town square, also surrounded by a dense crowd of tourists, resembling zombies even more. In a different style, the popular Repic beach is depicted, packed tightly with cartoonish figures of tourists crowding both the beach and the balconies.