Spanish musician Rodrigo Cueva has gone viral after sharing a condemning message for influencers who he believe are promoting mass tourism: “Those of you who promote mass tourism for likes are going to hell”.
The Spanish singer, from Asturias, in the north west region of Spain, reacted after Alex Rodrigo, director of ‘La casa de papel’ (Money Heist), complained about the overcrowding of a natural pool in his village, which, after going viral, he says is now a “rubbish dump.”
Mass tourism is in the spotlight throughout Spain because it is causing many problems – not only in cities, but also in natural areas and villages. With content creators sharing little-known spots that only locals used to know, they are now becoming fashionable and overcrowded – leading to mass tourism.
Rodrigo, from Zaragoza, who has criticised the overcrowding of natural spaces, says that the natural pool in his village, which was “very quiet” and “where local people used to go in summer” because there is no public swimming pool in the municipality, has become a “rubbish dump” after going viral among tourists. “Nobody from the village goes there anymore.”
The comment by the director of series such as ‘La casa de papel’ and ‘Vis a vis’, accompanied by photographs showing the overcrowding of his childhood swimming pool – a beautiful place – accumulated many reactions and comments of approval on X. One of them, which is also being applauded, is that of musician Rodrigo Cuevas, who surely knows more than one of those quiet corners of Asturias that should be preserved from overcrowded tourism.
The artist, from Asturias, who lives very quietly in a small village, criticises the content creators who go on to make them viral. “Those of you who promote mass tourism for likes are going to hell,” he said in a tweet that has accumulated many likes. On other occasions he has already made it clear that overcrowding is one of the evils that Asturias also suffers, where is also fashionable to buy a second home.
“Tourism is destroying Asturias,” some reply. “I’ve already had a fight with some influencers for that reason. They don’t want to work, so they make themselves important by discovering places and overcrowding them without control,” adds another Asturian user, who says he is “fed up” with influencers. Some even warn them that, if as Cuevas says, they end up going to hell, there is no wifi there.