Thousands of demonstrators took to Barcelona’s streets on Saturday to protest against overtourism in the city that has led to soaring prices and housing shortages.
Protesters carried signs reading “Barcelona is not for sale,” and, “Tourists go home,” before some hit tourists with water guns while they were dining outdoors.
Rents rose by 18 percent in June from a year earlier in popular tourist cities such as Barcelona and Madrid, according to the property website Idealista.
The northeastern coastal city, with internationally famous sites such as La Sagrada Familia, received more than 12 million tourists last year, according to local authorities.
To combat the “negative effects of mass tourism”, the city council run by the Socialist Jaume Collboni announced 10 days ago that it was banning tourist apartment rentals – there are now more than 10,000 – by 2028 so that they can be put back on the local housing market.
“We come here to demonstrate against mass ‘touristification’ here in Barcelona. The last years the city has turned completely for tourists and what we want is a city for citizens and not in service of tourists,” a protestor told Reuters.
“Restaurants and hotels is the group that makes really big money, but all the people are in a very poor situation and they don’t have enough money to live. That’s a problem,” another protestor said.
Protests against overtourism spread beyond Barcelona
The second most visited country after France, Spain received 85 million foreign visitors in 2023, an increase of 18.7 percent from 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).
The Barcelona protests come after similar demonstrations in tourist hotspots such as Malaga, Mallorca and the Canary Islands.
Last month tourists at a scenic beach in the resort of Mallorca were told to leave by local demonstrators campaigning against overtourism.
Around 300 locals, organized by the group Mallorca Platja Tour, occupied the beach at Calo del Moro on the island’s south coast. Protesters clapped and jeered as visitors were ejected from the sandy bay, packing up their bags and trudging up the hill to leave.
Greece to cap cruise ships to cope with overtourism
Greece, like Spain and other Mediterranean countries, is trying to cope with the problem caused by over-tourism.
Speaking in late June to Bloomberg, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the time has come to place restrictions on cruise ships visiting Greece’s most popular islands, the government’s first move to cope with the effects of over-tourism.
“I think we’ll do it next year,” Mitsotakis said in an interview, speaking about the decision to cap cruise ship visits. The new rules could see the total number of island berths restricted or a bidding process introduced for slots, he said.
“Santorini in itself is a problem,” the Premier said on June 12th at his Athens office, noting that there could be a disconnect between the sheer number of vessels docking at the island and how much they contribute to the tourist economy. He said the cruise ship traffic could turn off other visitors to Santorini.
“There are people spending a lot of money to be on Santorini, and they don’t want the island to be swamped,” Mitsotakis said. “Plus the island can’t afford it, even in terms of security.”
