Thousands of demonstrators hit central Barcelona over the weekend to protest against mass tourism in the city. Protesters carried signs reading “Barcelona is not for sale” and “Tourists go home” before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors at restaurants. Rents rose by 18 per cent in June from a year earlier in two of Spain’s tourist cities, Barcelona and Madrid, according to the property website Idealista. Barcelona’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced a plan in June to phase out all short-term lets by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic move by the authorities who seek to rein in soaring housing costs and make the city liveable for residents.
I get the issues with mass tourism, and Barcelona is pretty bad for being absolutely packed with tourists.
But on the flip side, tourists dump quite a bit of money into the economy, especially when it comes to restaurants. And Barcelona has quite a high city tax.
Of course this money doesn’t necessarily trickle down to local citizens. But do you think the government would ever discourage tourists from visiting? I’m sure they enjoy a nice amount of revenue from the various taxes imposed on tourists.
Yeah. Seems like misplaced anger. I’d be more pissed at the landlords raising rents.
I believe that’s part of it only because a huge amount of landlords have made their houses (apartments, condos, homes) to air bnb style rentals, leaving little for locals
Seems like they should ban airbnb and the like. Hotels exist for a reason.
Taxis existed for so long and ubers came in and took their crown too. But yes airbnbs should be regulated because a lot of homes that could be actual homes for people are turnkey income properties not jsut for small mom and pop families but corporations buying up massive amount of homes and only airbnb’ing them