Pilgrims turn Spain’s Santiago de Compostela into the world’s latest overtourism flashpoint

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AP) — While some Barcelona residents sought to repel a tsunami of tourists with plastic water pistols , a neighborhood association in Santiago de Compostela opted for a friendlier approach: a guide to good manners for visitors to their town, the endpoint of the Catholic world’s most famous pilgrimage.

Translated into several languages, the group posted it throughout the northwestern Spanish city and distributed it at its ever-growing number of hostels. It reminded tourists to keep noise down, respect traffic rules and use plastic protectors on hiking poles to avoid damaging the narrow cobblestone streets, among other things.

To little avail, it would seem. Large groups still take over the streets singing hymns, bikes ride in the wrong direction and metal po