A teenager who has become the face of Spain's anti-tourist movement has issued a direct message to British holidaymakers as the summer season gets underway.
Jaume Pujol, 17, has been dubbed the "Greta Thunberg of tourists" for his role in orchestrating demonstrations across holiday hotspot Majorca.
The young activist began his campaign at just 13 - and has spent his time after his exams finished coordinating major protests throughout the island.
His efforts coincide with a notable decline in visitor numbers to Spain, with May figures revealing a 1.6 per cent reduction in tourists to the traditionally popular British holiday destination.
The demonstrations have featured crowds, flares, furious placards and water pistols - which some have labelled "tourismphobia".
Jaume Pujol (right) has been dubbed the 'Greta Thunberg of tourists' for his role in orchestrating demonstrations
|REUTERS/ITV
And now, speaking directly to British visitors, Pujol urged them to "put themselves in our shoes and understand the problem we have on our island."
"We're not against individual tourists... We're against an entire economy. At the end of the day... ultimately they represent that economy," the 17-year-old activist told ITV.
Pujol then called for a "little empathy and a little understanding of the problem we have here and why we fight the way we do."
He also told Britons "not to think about... graffiti or a water pistol, because the attack will never be directed at the individual tourist."
ANTI-TOURIST PROTESTS - LATEST:
- Spain begs Britons to come back after anti-tourism protests leave much-loved resort 'completely dead'
- Britons REFUSE to visit Majorca amid anti-tourist protests after Spain's 'message scares them away' - 'We're not wanted!'
- British holidaymakers warned of new ‘sunbed tax’ in Spain as hefty fines loom
- Anti-tourism protesters blast Britons for turning Spanish city into 'theme park for drunken tourism'
Jaume Pujol told Britons 'not to think about graffiti' in holiday hotspots like Majorca
|REUTERS
He also claims to have not travelled abroad for a while in a bid to stay on-message.
"But," he said, "just because we have a problem and we complain about it doesn't mean we can't leave Mallorca and that if we do, we're hypocrites."
Pujol said that his activism stems from anxieties about young people's prospects on the island.
Tourism means that he and other youths will never be able to afford a house in the place their grandparents grew up, he warned.
"It's not that I'm against tourism, but rather against the monoculture of tourism or the reliance on one industry because it makes us economically weak as an island," the activist added.
He also turned his fire on Spanish businesses, branding claims they were losing out on tourist cash "a complete lie".
Spanish demonstrations have featured crowds, flares, furious placards and water pistols - which some have labelled 'tourismphobia'
|REUTERS
"Tourism generates wealth for a small portion of the population, which are the business owners and the upper class of Mallorca," the activist blasted.
"We're not the minority, they're the minority."
But the young campaigner counselled that he wasn't only looking to target Britons looking for a taste of summer sun.
He added that he and his group "don't like to differentiate" between nationalities, incomes or anything else.
Campaigners want just one thing: "a decrease in tourism", Pujol said.