Barcelona Residents Say “No More” to Mass Tourism

Spaniards, or people living in Barcelona are unhappy. They believe that their city is over-tourished. The villagers have, therefore, demonstrated on the streets on Saturday to show how angered they are. The demonstrators had placards with inscriptions such as ‘Barcelona is not for sale’, and ‘Tourists stay out’. They prefer to see less tourism in their city or their hometown. But they argue that all those people are forgetting that those are tourists and they are only making the life of residents” difficult.

Families are suffering as houses become too expensive

One of the biggest issues is that acquiring a house in Barcelona has become rather costly. Over the last ten years, the costs of homes have been subject to a 68% increase. Unfortunately, a greater number of people native to the city are unable to afford to live in their home city.

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Too Many Holiday Homes

There are more than 10,000 apartments in Barcelona that are only used for tourists on short holidays. The city government wants to stop this by 2028. They hope this will help local people find places to live. But some people who own these holiday apartments don’t like this idea.

Tourism is Important for Spain

Tourism is very important for Spain’s economy. It brings in a lot of money. But now, it’s causing problems in many cities. People in other parts of Spain are also getting upset about too many tourists.

Not Just A Barcelona Problem

This is not only true for Barcelona and I wish to support this hypothesis by outlining two more trends in other global cities. Other cities in Spain are experiencing the same problem as well. People are concerned with the aggressiveness with which their cities are being transformed by all the visitors.

Thus, Barcelona must learn how to generate income by attracting tourists and at the same time preserving the city for locals.