Thousands of protesters marched in Barcelona on Saturday to denounce mass tourism and its effects on Spain’s most visited city, the latest in a series of similar marches in the country.
Under the slogan “Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism”, around 2,800 people – according to the police – marched along a seaside neighborhood in Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the number of millions of tourists that the visit every year.
“I have nothing against tourism, but here in Barcelona we suffer from an excess of tourism that has made our city uninhabitable,” said Jordi Guiu, a 70-year-old sociologist.
With banners that read “Reduce tourism now!”, protesters chanted slogans such as “Tourists out of our neighborhood”, stopping in front of hotels to the surprise of visitors.
The rising cost of housing in Barcelona, which has increased by 68% in the last decade according to local authorities, is one of the main issues for the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions in the city of Barcelona. 1.6 million inhabitants.
“Local stores are closing to make way for stores that don’t meet the needs of the neighborhoods. People can’t pay the rent,” said Isa Miralles, a 35-year-old musician who lives in the Barceloneta neighborhood.
The northeastern coastal city, with internationally famous sites such as the Sagrada Familia, welcomed more than 12 million tourists last year, according to local authorities.
To combat the “negative effects of mass tourism”, the City Council led by socialist Jaume Collboni announced 10 days ago that it was banning the rental of tourist apartments – there are already more than 10,000 – until 2028, so that they can be postponed. in the local real estate market.
The announcement could lead to a legal battle and is contested by a tourist apartment association that claims it will only serve to feed the black market.
The Barcelona protests follow similar demonstrations in tourist hotspots such as Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and the Canary Islands.
The second most visited country after France, Spain received 85 million foreign visitors in 2023, an increase of 18.7% compared to the previous year, according to the National Statistics Institute.
The most visited region was Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, with 18 million, followed by the Balearic Islands (14.4 million) and the Canary Islands (13.9 million).
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