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 imagine 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 mentioned with a chuckle after spritzing a pair seated at an out of doors cafe. “Barcelona has been handed to the vacationers. This can be a battle to present Barcelona again to its residents.”
Martínez, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, is one among a rising variety of residents who’re satisfied that tourism has gone too far within the metropolis of 1.7 folks. Barcelona hosted 15.5 guests final yr desperate 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 mentioned 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 mentioned. “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 dwelling.” 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 lodges and hostels.
There was rigidity 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. Additionally 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 had been strolling alongside Barcelona’s important luxurious procuring boulevard the place the protest began. They acquired a squirt or two, however she mentioned it was truly refreshing given the 83 diploma Fahrenheit (28.3 levels Celcius) climate.
“That’s beautiful, thanks sweetheart,” Wanda mentioned 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 the town).”
Cities internationally are combating how to cope with overtourism and a growth 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 time.
Spaniards have additionally staged a number of giant protests in Barcelona, Madrid and different cities in recent times to demand decrease rents. There has additionally been a confluence of the pro-housing and anti-tourism struggles: When thousands marched through 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 record 94 million international visitors in 2024, in contrast with 83 million in 2019, making it one of many most-visited nations on the planet.
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 mentioned it’s now a number one concern. Spain’s official public opinion workplace mentioned 76% of individuals responded “Sure” final yr when requested in the event that they had been in favor of tighter authorities laws on vacationer flats. (These polls had been of 4,000 folks, with a margin of error of 1.6%)
Spain’s municipal and federal authorities are striving to point out 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 remove virtually 66,000 vacation leases from the platform which it mentioned had violated native guidelines.
Spain’s Shopper Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told The Associated Press shortly after the crackdown on Airbnb that the tourism sector “can not jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish folks,” which enshrines their proper to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo, the economic system minister, said in a separate interview that the federal government is conscious it should sort out the undesirable uncomfortable side effects of mass tourism.
And final yr, Barcelona shocked Airbnb and different companies who assist lease properties to vacationers by saying 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 plenty of our flesh pressers have discovered a straightforward scapegoat accountable for the inefficiencies of their insurance policies by way of housing and tourism during the last 10, 15, 20 years,” Airbnb’s normal director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago lately advised the AP.
That argument both hasn’t trickled right down to the extraordinary residents of Barcelona, or isn’t resonating.
However Txema Escorsa, a instructor in Barcelona, doesn’t simply oppose Airbnb in his dwelling 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 folks,” he mentioned.
The federal government measures weren’t sufficient to maintain Sunday’s marchers at dwelling in Barcelona.