Tourism to Berlin is booming as never before and filling the debt-ridden city's coffers with much-needed cash, but not all Berliners are cheering the influx of visitors.

Some blame the tourists, especially the young 20-something "Easyjet set" who ride the budget airline to party through the night in the uber-cool, hedonistic German capital, for a host of ills from rising rents to noise pollution.

"Noisy tourists go home!" reads one hostile sign in the eastern district of Friedrichshain. "Berlin doesn't love you," say stickers plastering traffic lights in nearby Kreuzberg.

A gallery in an area known for its trendy bars featured for months a scrawled sign in the window: "Sorry, no entry for hipsters from the US."

Berlin, now Europe's third most visited city after the more established magnets London and Paris, can ill afford to scare away the tourists.

These protests represent those of a small minority, said Burkhardt Kieker, director of VisitBerlin, the city's main tourist service agency.

"The average Berliner is honored by the tourists," he said.

Reuters