BARCELONA, Spain — Protesters used water pistols in opposition to unsuspecting vacationers in Barcelona on Sunday as demonstrators marched to demand a re-think of an financial mannequin they consider is fueling a housing crunch and erasing the character of the Spanish metropolis.
“The squirt weapons are to trouble the vacationers a bit,” Andreu Martínez stated with a chuckle after spritzing a pair seated at an outside cafe. “Barcelona has been handed to the vacationers. It is a battle to present Barcelona again to its residents.”
Martínez, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, is certainly one of a rising variety of residents who’re satisfied that tourism has gone too far within the metropolis of 1.7 individuals. Barcelona hosted 15.5 guests final 12 months desirous to see Antoni Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade.
Martínez says his lease has risen over 30% as extra flats in his neighborhood are rented to vacationers for short-term stays. He stated there’s a knock-on impact of conventional shops being changed by companies catering to vacationers, like memento retailers, burger joints and “bubble tea” spots.
“Our lives, as lifelong residents of Barcelona, is coming to an finish,” he stated. “We’re being pushed out systematically.”
Related demonstrations in opposition to tourism are slated in a number of different Spanish cities on Sunday, together with on the Balearic islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, in addition to within the Italian postcard metropolis of Venice, Portugal’s capital Lisbon and different cities throughout southern Europe — marking the primary time a protest in opposition to tourism has been coordinated throughout the area.
In Barcelona, protesters blew whistles and chanted, “All over the place you look, all you see are vacationers.” They held up do-it-yourself indicators saying “Another vacationer, one much less resident” and “Your Airbnb was my house.” They caught stickers saying “Citizen Self-Protection,” in Catalan, and “Vacationer Go Dwelling,” in English, with a drawing of a water pistol on the doorways of motels and hostels.
There was pressure when the march stopped in entrance of a giant hostel, the place a bunch emptied their water weapons at two employees positioned within the entrance. In addition they set off firecrackers subsequent to the hostel and opened a can of pink smoke. One employee spat on the protestors as he slammed the hostel’s doorways.
American vacationers Wanda and Invoice Dorozenski have been strolling alongside Barcelona’s foremost luxurious procuring boulevard the place the protest began. They obtained a squirt or two, however she stated it was really refreshing given the 83 diploma Fahrenheit (28.3 levels Celcius) climate.
“That’s beautiful, thanks sweetheart,” Wanda stated to the squirter. “I’m not going to complain. These individuals are feeling one thing to them that could be very private, and is maybe destroying some areas (of town).”
Cities the world over are scuffling with how to deal with overtourism and a increase in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, however maybe nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Barcelona, the place protesters first took to firing squirt weapons at vacationers throughout a protest final summer season.
Spaniards have additionally staged a number of giant protests in Barcelona, Madrid and different cities lately to demand decrease rents. There has additionally been a confluence of the pro-housing and anti-tourism struggles: When 1000’s marched by way of the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held do-it-yourself indicators saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”
Spain, with a inhabitants of 48 million, hosted a file 94 million worldwide guests in 2024, in contrast with 83 million in 2019, making it one of many most-visited nations on the earth.
A ballot in June 2022 discovered simply 2% of Spaniards thought housing was a nationwide drawback. Three years later, virtually a 3rd of these surveyed stated it’s now a number one concern. Spain’s official public opinion workplace stated 76% of individuals responded “Sure” final 12 months when requested in the event that they have been in favor of tighter authorities laws on vacationer flats. (These polls have been of 4,000 individuals, with a margin of error of 1.6%)
Spain’s municipal and federal authorities are striving to indicate they hear the general public outcry and are taking applicable motion to place the tourism trade on discover, regardless of the very fact it contributes 12% of nationwide GDP.
Final month, Spain’s authorities ordered Airbnb to take away virtually 66,000 vacation leases from the platform which it stated had violated native guidelines.
Spain’s Client Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy informed The Related Press shortly after the crackdown on Airbnb that the tourism sector “can’t jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish individuals,” which enshrines their proper to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo, the financial system minister, stated in a separate interview that the federal government is conscious it should deal with the undesirable unintended effects of mass tourism.
And final 12 months, Barcelona surprised Airbnb and different providers who assist lease properties to vacationers by asserting the elimination of all 10,000 short-term rental licenses within the metropolis by 2028.
The short-term rental trade, for its half, believes it’s being handled unfairly.
“I believe numerous our legislators have discovered a straightforward scapegoat accountable for the inefficiencies of their insurance policies when it comes to housing and tourism over the past 10, 15, 20 years,” Airbnb’s common director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago just lately informed the AP.
That argument both hasn’t trickled all the way down to the unusual residents of Barcelona, or isn’t resonating.
However Txema Escorsa, a trainer in Barcelona, doesn’t simply oppose Airbnb in his house metropolis; he has ceased to make use of it even when touring elsewhere, out of precept.
“Ultimately, you understand that that is taking away housing from individuals,” he stated.
The federal government measures weren’t sufficient to maintain Sunday’s marchers at house in Barcelona.
