Revolt against Mass Tourism in Barcelona and the rest of Spain:

Updated: Aug 9

Publication date: 08.08.2024

Spain is a sunny gateway to Europe, with millions of people visiting worldwide, making it the second most visited country on the planet. According to the WP Travel Analysis, 83,7 million people will visit Spain in 2024. With its golden beaches and stunning architecture, the country on the Iberian peninsula attracts everybody who craves to absorb some vitamin D and enjoy delicious cuisine. However, while tourism constitutes roughly 11% of Spain's GDP, it also brings about undesirable liabilities, mainly for locals living in the epicenter of many touristic hotspots that Spain has to offer. And the locals are the ones who recently decided to express their disapproval and made headlines all around the world.

How did it all start?

Barcelona is one of the most sought-after destinations in Spain, ranking second in the list of the most visited cities in the country. The Catalonian metropolis is home to 1,2 million, however, it welcomes roughly 32 million visitors every year, almost 26 times the number of permanent residents, according to the website of Responsible Travel. This phenomenon is nonetheless, relatively new. Before the 1992 Summer Olympics, Barcelona was not considered a touristic hotspot of the old continent. But since the major international and highly televised sports event revealed the city's beauty, people from all over the world started to pour in. This happened roughly 30 years after Spain opened up to the world in the early 60s and boosted its tourism industry with a campaign known as "Spain is Different", aiming to reconnect the country with the international community and lure not only tourists but also foreign investors. An isolated country led by a dictator progressively transformed first into a well-known recreational hotspot for the European upper crust, and subsequently to the second-most-visited place in the world.

From the success of the 60s to the troubles of the 2020s:

However, a lot has changed since the early tourist boom in the 1960s. Spain has already secured its spot on the world's stage with a thriving Tourist industry and stable foreign investments fuelling the country's economy for years. The same could be said about Barcelona. The city on the Mediterranean coast capitalized approximately 12 billion Euros from Tourism itself in 2019, according to the Barcelona Tourism Board. The revenue generated by the Tourist Industry significantly boosts the city's economy, helping to maintain its most famous and culturally important landmarks like Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and the National Art Museum. However, the excess of international visitors has also several negative effects which directly and indirectly trouble not only the city itself but mainly its residents. And in the last years, those surpassed the favorable impacts of tourism.

Tourists In, Barcelonians Out:

One of the implications of Mass Tourism is the unaffordability of living spaces for the local population. This is caused mainly due to the growing net of tourist accommodations and private rentals provided through sites like Airbnb or Booking. An estimated 8% of residents had to leave their homes due to the rising prices induced by tourist rentals, according to the data from 2017. In 2024, the city council decided to prohibit short-term leasing and announced that from November 2028, it would stop renewing and providing new licenses for renting apartments, which will significantly affect the revenue of the two previously mentioned companies, and many others. This move was criticized not only by the representatives of the online renting sites but also by the EU, labeling the measures as " disproportionate", according to an article published by Cities Today. However, Barcelona decided to stick to this step in response to the increasingly dire situation and pressure from the city's residents, who now have to spend around 62% of their gross income on rent. The conditions are no better in the rest of the region, where it takes up to 8,6 years' worth of gross salary to purchase a house, as Catalan News wrote.

Pollution that kills:

Catalonia's capital is also beset by severe air pollution caused by air traffic and the cruise ship industry. According to the global environmental organization Earth5R, airplanes are responsible for 75% of the carbon emissions from tourism in Barcelona. Dozens of cruise ships arriving and departing from Barcelona's port daily also contribute to the overall poor environmental conditions of the Barcelona metropolitan area. Earth5R reported that "Cruises accounted for 28.5% of Barcelona’s carcinogenic nitrogen oxide and 3.5% of the city’s particle pollution", gases that negatively affect not only the environment but also human health. Large vessels also discharge toxic fuel oils into the sea, as their motors remain turned on while waiting for passengers to return on board after several hours spent in the city center. In 2019, the conditions of the port's waters were reported to be the worst in Europe. These factors, together with the excessive number of cars on the streets (more than 6,000 per square kilometer), contribute to approximately 3,500 premature deaths every year, according to the Spanish Confederation of Ecologic Associations - Ecologistas en Acción.

Locals have spoken:

On July 6th, 2024, Barcelona made the headlines of major media publications around the world, such as CNN, BBC, and El País. According to the Guardia Urbana Barcelona (City Police), an estimated 2 800 protestors set out to the streets to convey their disapproval of the tourism industry and its effects on the city. The demonstration started at the edge of La Rambla and continued along the port promenade to the streets of Barceloneta, where the protestors sprayed dining tourists in the open-air restaurants with water guns, a moment that went viral on social media. While doing so, the crowd chanted "Tourists Go Home"! or "Mass Tourism Kills the City". The event was organized by Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turístic (Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth), which claims that mass tourism increases the prices in the city and creates economic inequality among the local population, and put forward 13 proposals tackling the dire situation and modifying the existing tourism legislation, reported by CNN.

Some media houses criticized the protesters' treatment of the tourists. Like The Sun, labeling them "Anit-Tourism Zealots" and pointing out Spain's enormous financial profit stemming from tourism. However, the fact that Barcelona is not the only city in Spain, and in the world, which registered anti-mass tourism demonstrations, indicates that this phenomenon causes some severe, unwanted drawbacks negatively affecting the lives of those lucky to live in the world's most spectacular cities, which negates the notion that this is a uniquely Spanish problem and that Spanish people are xenophobic.

You can also read about:

Spain's National Parks: Preserving Biodiversity and Promoting Eco-Tourism

Revolt against Mass Tourism in Barcelona and the rest of Spain:

How did it all start?

From the success of the 60s to the troubles of the 2020s:

Tourists In, Barcelonians Out:

Pollution that kills:

Locals have spoken:

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