CNN
—
It was the water pistol shot that echoed all over the world.
In the summertime of 2024, after years of tolerating the pressures of overtourism, locals in Barcelona ramped up their protest, with hundreds gathering to chant “vacationers go residence.” Nevertheless it was a small group armed with toy water pistols who made headlines by squirting them at guests seated in outside cafes.
A mischievous, seemingly innocent act, maybe. But as photos of the incident unfold globally, the firepower of these toy weapons quickly turned obvious. Barcelona’s longstanding tensions over the town’s transformation right into a vacationer playground had erupted into very public hostility.
The shock squirt assault, criticized by some high tourism officers, was additionally emblematic of a scenario ongoing in lots of different locations, from Amsterdam to Bali, the place native residents face being priced out of their very own houses by a world tourism trade that will get larger and extra expansive yearly.
Barcelona, like many of those locations, additionally faces one other downside. Whereas mass tourism may be placing a pressure on the town, it’s additionally very important to its existence, offering jobs and revenue. Tourism is now 14% of the town’s financial system and supplies 150,000 jobs, mentioned Mateu Hernández, director of the Barcelona Tourism Consortium.
See Barcelona protesters squirt water at vacationers
It’s a balancing act the town’s tourism officers are solely too conscious of as Barcelona prepares for the arrival of throngs of holiday makers this summer time. At the same time as measures are enacted aimed toward serving to shield native residents, there have been official issues that many vacationers might not really feel welcome.
Hernández, whose Consortium is the town’s tourism promotion board, pointed to “a notion that Barcelona doesn’t need vacationers. We’re frightened about Barcelona’s picture of overtourism,” he advised a bunch of overseas correspondents in Madrid in January.
Now, authorities are working to vary perceptions earlier than this summer time arrives. Guests will definitely nonetheless come — a newly opened cruise terminal has the potential to usher in many hundreds extra vacationers — however will some keep away?
Tourism wasn’t at all times an issue in Barcelona. For years the capital of Spain’s northeastern Catalonia area welcomed a gradual however sustainable circulate of holiday makers there to savor the attractive structure and Mediterranean life-style.
Then got here the Barcelona 1992 Summer season Olympics. In its runup, an city renewal upgraded the airport, eliminated railroad tracks and trade situated alongside the Mediterranean and put in seashores. The Video games then supplied a highlight for the type and tradition of the historic metropolis that had opened to the ocean.
By 2004, Barcelona, a metropolis of 1.5 million residents, acquired 4.5 million vacationers who stayed in a single day. The airport quickly added a 3rd runway and a brand new terminal. Ryanair started low-cost flights there in 2010. Extra cruise ship terminals had been constructed, and by 2019, simply earlier than the Covid pandemic, there have been 16.1 million in a single day vacationers, official figures present.
After which the newest backlash. It’s unclear whether or not final yr’s protests had a direct influence, however 15.5 million vacationers stayed in a single day in Barcelona in 2024 — 100,000 lower than in 2023, official figures present. Town’s inhabitants had elevated to 1.7 million.
Some vacationers spend solely the day within the metropolis. Amongst them, 1.6 million cruise ship passengers “in transit” in 2024, the Port of Barcelona reported. The bulk come ashore when their ships dock within the morning, tour the town, and return by late afternoon to sail for the subsequent vacation spot, the tourism consortium press workplace mentioned.
The ensuing crowds, at locations like La Rambla road and within the adjoining Gothic quarter, the oldest a part of city, are partly in charge for the ire amongst Barcelona’s residents.
“We really feel fairly invaded,” Joan Albert Riu Fortuny, a lifelong Barcelona resident, advised CNN.
One focus of crowding, mentioned Jordi Valls, a Barcelona deputy mayor whose portfolio consists of tourism, is the neighborhood across the iconic Sagrada Familia Basilica. It’s residence to 50,000 residents, he mentioned, however in summer time, one other 50,000 vacationers can present up each day there, simply to take a look at the still-unfinished church.
“We expect vacationer demand is unstoppable,” Valls advised CNN. “Everyone seems to be welcome. However there’s a restrict,” he mentioned, with out specifying the quantity. “The one risk is to regulate the provision.”
A plan to double the vacationer tax — as much as greater than $16 (15 euros) per vacationer per night time in Barcelona — was unveiled in February by the Catalan regional authorities. If authorized, it could earmark no less than 25% of the income to assist ease a housing scarcity, which is a chief criticism amongst residents.
Quick-term vacationer rental flats are extensively blamed as a think about lowering reasonably priced housing in Barcelona. The typical value of long-term rental flats, the place residents dwell, elevated 68% prior to now decade, the town’s housing workplace advised CNN.
“With vacationer flats, the proprietor will get rather more cash by renting it that method than in a long-term lease,” mentioned Riu Fortuny, the Barcelona resident. “There’s not sufficient accessible housing.”
In all, Barcelona has 152,000 beds accessible nightly for guests, the tourism consortium’s Hernández added, primarily in inns but in addition together with 60,000 in vacationer flats.
With such a potent trade, the proposed doubling of the vacationer tax “does nothing greater than legitimize the very touristic exercise,” Daniel Pardo, a longtime member of the Meeting of Neighborhoods for Tourism Degrowth, in Barcelona, advised CNN. “It’s an remoted measure that doesn’t change the established order.”
The Meeting helped manage the massive tourism protest final July — however not the water pistol a part of it, Pardo mentioned. He added that there’ll “certainly” be extra protests this yr, however that particular plans can be determined later.
On the metropolis’s most-visited websites, there are indicators of change in how Barcelona is receiving the vacationers.
On La Rambla, sensors had been put in final yr to measure foot site visitors, by cellphone actions, alongside the 0.8 mile (1.3 kilometer) promenade, mentioned Xavi Masip, supervisor of Mates of La Rambla, a 65-year-old neighborhood affiliation to guard and promote the road.
“The sensors give a sign of how and the place individuals are shifting, at what hours, and the areas with some saturation,” Masip advised CNN. “La Rambla could be very full. There are occasions when these of us from Barcelona can really feel bothered” about it.
Some congested areas have already been recognized, like a slender part close to the Plaza de Catalunya, at one finish of La Rambla, Masip mentioned. The port, on the different finish of the road, has additionally put in some sensors.
“An enormous a part of that is that crowds aren’t managed effectively” on La Rambla, mentioned Will Gluckin, world communications supervisor for Get Your Information, a Berlin-based platform providing journey experiences in locations all over the world. The agency is a sponsor for the Mates of La Rambla initiative that put in the sensors.
“We ship clients to La Rambla day by day,” mentioned Gluckin, whose firm has operated in Barcelona for a decade. He advised CNN that “poor-quality vacationer retailers” and lots of fast-food eateries there have made “La Rambla one thing of a large vacationer lure as a substitute of a genuinely good place to go to.”
Nevertheless it’s free, and vacationers preserve strolling it, at the same time as road work continues this yr to widen the central pedestrian portion of La Rambla and to scale back the 2 lanes of auto site visitors to only one on either side of it, Masip mentioned.
The 2 most-visited websites that cost entry charges in Barcelona had been each designed by modernist architect Antoni Gaudí. Every now sells solely advance on-line tickets. The Sagrada Familia began this in 2020 throughout the Covid pandemic, and final yr had 4.8 million guests, 87% of them from outdoors of Spain, its press workplace mentioned.
Park Guëll, perched on a hill overlooking the town and the ocean, shifted to advance on-line tickets solely final yr and had practically 4.5 million guests. This yr the park, with its distinctive Gaudi curvy mosaics, elevated the usual entry charge to $19.50 (18 euros), from $10.80 (10 euros). It’s a transfer aimed toward managing the crowds, mentioned deputy mayor Valls.
To make room for extra guests on the road, the town says it has eliminated benches and small gardens round Sagrada Familia, the place a brand new tower, the tallest of all of the church’s spires, is to be accomplished later this yr. At Park Guëll, tour bus and taxi stops have been relocated farther from the doorway, to minimize crowd density there.
Over on the port, Barcelona’s seventh cruise ship terminal simply opened in February. It’s a modern construction completely for ships from MSC Cruises, a Geneva-based world cruise operator. MSC mentioned it has stopped utilizing three different cruise terminals on the port for its ships.
However the metropolis goals to scale back the seven terminals to only 5, by negotiations, deputy mayor Valls advised CNN. Three present terminals, he mentioned, have concessions as a consequence of expire in 2029.
MSC’s Madrid press workplace advised CNN its new terminal has a 30-year concession.
“MSC Cruises is dedicated to accountable tourism,” an organization assertion mentioned, including that it provides prior discover to native authorities about ship arrival and departure occasions, and particulars about passengers who’ll go to varied vacationer websites. “This ensures that our purchasers get pleasure from their holidays whereas serving to Barcelona’s financial system and native jobs.”
In all, about 800 cruise ships arrive yearly on the port and it’s not the one flash level of huge tourism infrastructure in Barcelona. Mayor Jaume Collboni introduced final yr that the town would revoke permits in 2028 for the ten,000 licensed vacationer flats, to assist present extra reasonably priced housing.
However Barcelona’s vacationer flats affiliation, Apartur, opposes this, demanding hefty compensation for the homeowners and arguing that it could lead to extra unlicensed vacationer flats.
And there’s discuss of increasing Barcelona’s airport, which had a document 55 million passengers in 2024. It’s “at a saturation degree,” mentioned Hernández, of the tourism consortium. The airport has direct connections to about 200 locations globally, 70 % of them in Europe, additionally together with eight locations in the USA.
The Spanish authorities and Catalan officers are discussing “tips on how to improve the capability and shield the environment,” the Catalan president’s press workplace advised CNN, including that the airport sits in a river delta with European Union-protected marshlands and chicken habitats.
Barcelona’s attraction for vacationers has even turn out to be a topic of examine at school, mentioned two American college college students on a semester-abroad program in Madrid. They visited Barcelona for the primary time in February on a school-organized journey and advised CNN that the preparation supplies talked about tourism’s influence on Barcelona.
Sean Thompson, 20, a sociology main from Utica, New York, mentioned, “I actually did benefit from the metropolis. It teaches us the impact of tourism on Barcelona and the hyper-tourism.”
Andrew Durkin, 21, a finance main from Scranton, Pennsylvania, mentioned, “I knew, entering into, that there have been attitudes towards vacationers. I anticipated to be handled in a different way.”
Their go to included the Sagrada Familia and La Rambla. They anticipated larger crowds however mentioned it was a principally wet weekend in February, in off-season.
However the crowds might be again for the summer time.
“We’re making an effort to handle, however excessive season is excessive season,” deputy mayor Valls mentioned. “So, there might be extra vacationers.”
