Last Saturday, nearly 3,000 anti-tourism demonstrators took to the crowded streets of Barcelona to protest against mass tourism and gentrification that is forcing locals out of their neighborhoods.
So far in 2024, thousands of Spaniards across the Canary and Balearic Islands, Girona, Málaga and Costa del Sol have also voiced their concerns regarding the same matters.
But none had caught the international media’s attention like this particular protest. Why?
This time, Barcelona protestors went a bit further and fired water pistols at tourists who were having food and drinks at famous terraces, and tape crisscrossed the doors of some hotels and bars.
All of this while holding up banners with “Tourists Go Home,” “Barcelona Is Not for Sale,” and “Barcelona is not Disneyland” messages.
Not everyone in the city agreed. The Barcelona hotels guild said in a statement that these kinds of actions are simply “unacceptable.”
According to a local media outlet, the business group said that demonstrations were “promoted by a very limited number of locals with a particular opinion on specific social movements.”
The group added that Barcelona continues to be “a very welcoming city for visitors, and there is not a general feeling against tourism,” and declared that tourism brings positive impacts to different layers of society.
“There is a need to highlight the positive impact of tourism in aspects such as the economy, labor, social, and cultural, as well as the effect it has in other city industries such as the scientific and technological ones.”
However, it acknowledges that marketing campaigns should be redirected to target “visitors that are of interest.” They didn’t clarify what that meant.
Meanwhile, the “Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth (ABDT),” the group that managed to gather over 140 organizations to protest, thinks the fewer tourists the better and some water won’t chase anyone away.
“It would be great if some tourists stopped coming, but that won’t happen because of water guns, and won’t happen in general by itself,” ABDT leaders said.
Protesters also don’t really trust Barcelona City Hall’s plan to ban over 10,101 tourist apartments by 2028 because, at the same time, the administration will add 20,000 new hotel beds inside and around the city.
Following the “water pistols situation,” a government-owned agency quickly released a survey showing that the vast majority of Catalans (75%) supported the idea of keeping the doors open to all tourists without mentioning any sort of limits.
However, a recent report showed that not only tourists but also digital nomads from the UK and other countries are forcing locals out of traditional neighborhoods like Poblenou, where mom-and-pop shops have been transformed into co-working spaces, coffee shops and bars catering to foreigners at prices locals can’t afford.
We’ll see how the city reacts when 2.5 million additional tourists visit Barcelona from August to October to attend the America’s Cup 2024, according to a UPF study.
So far, more than 65 organizations have denounced real estate speculation in the streets surrounding the event, with locals being denied rental contracts.