‘Not viable’: Barcelona turns against surging tourism

BARCELONA — Tourists are flocking to Barcelona in ever increasing numbers, fuelling anger among locals who complain that mass tourism is driving up housing prices and overwhelming public spaces in Spain's second city.

Known for its Belle Epoque architecture, museums and beaches, Barcelona receives an average of 170,000 visitors per day according to municipal figures, and tourism accounts for roughly 13.5 per cent of the city's gross domestic product.

At the same time, tourism is now the third most worrying problem for Barcelona's 1.6 million residents according to a municipal survey, mirroring a trend seen in other tourism hotspots across Europe.

"There is an excessive economic dependence on the tourist sector," said Daniel Pardo of the assembly of neighbourhoods, adding he was disappointed that after the pandemic there has been an "aggressive" rebound in tourism in the city of around 1.6 million residents.

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Barcelona on Sunday to protest against the city's tourism-centric economic model, as well as the America's Cup sailing competition it is hosting this year.

Graffiti reading "Tourist go home" in English has appeared in multiple spots across the city and in July some participants at a protest against overtourism sprayed people they identified as tourists with water pistols.

Politicians and business leaders condemned the action but Pardo downplayed it, calling it "anecdotal".

"Violence is being expelled from your neighbourhood, extreme labour exploitation, that even if you can stay in your neighbourhood you see how your environment is gradually disappearing," he added.

'Uncontrolled tourism'

Tenants of a building near Barcelona's main train station are locked in a legal battle with the owner of property who wants to convert its 120 flats into short-term holiday rentals.

More than 30 flats have already been converted, in what critics say is an example of how mass tourism contributes to a housing shortage and changes the nature of residential neighbourhoods.

"We have had cases of tourists throwing up on neighbours from one balcony to another. Noise problem because they hold parties, the smell of marijuana," said Pamela Battigambe, a longtime resident of the building.

She fears she will be forced to leave Barcelona where rents have jumped 68 per cent over the last decade.

"We are not against tourism per se. We are against this form of uncontrolled tourism," Battigambe said.

Barcelona's Socialist mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced in June that the city will scrap the licences of the roughly 10,000 flats currently approved as short-term rentals by the end of 2028 in a bid to rein in soaring housing costs.

Barcelona's tourist flats association Apartur has called this a "disguised expropriation" and said it will seek 1 billion euros in compensation if the measure goes ahead.

Barcelona deputy mayor Jordi Valls said the city is exploring other measures to better manage the tourism sector, such as reducing the number of cruise ships that can stop at the port, and is "trying to grow and develop other activities" to diversify the economy.

Traditional shops vanish

But with city hall also backing a planned expansion of Barcelona's airport, critics charge the measures are not enough.

"We are not tackling 'overtourism' from the point of view of degrowth or stopping tourism, but rather we are trying to disperse it over time and territory," said University of Barcelona geography professor Anna Torres Delgado.

"We should start planning tourism development strategies not only by looking at economic indicators, but also at social and environmental ones."

The surge in tourism in Barcelona comes as Spain, the world's most visited country after France, is on track this year to smash last year's record for international tourist arrivals of 85.1 million.

Near Barcelona's iconic Sagrada Familia basilica, Jordi Gimeno's haberdashery is one of the few traditional shops left in the neighbourhood.

"These shops have been closing down because restaurants and souvenir shops have moved in," he said at the shop his grandmother opened in 1944.

"There are businesses that tourism is not interested in," he added.

Standing in front of the basilica, Dutch tourist Jolijn said "in Amsterdam we have the same problem".

"People live their lives differently now than before when there was not so much tourism," she said.