Barcelona finally turned on its crowds of tourists. Now the city faces a major problem

It was the water pistol shot that echoed all over the world.

In the summertime of 2024, after years of tolerating the pressures of overtourism, locals in Barcelona ramped up their protest, with hundreds gathering to chant “vacationers go dwelling.” But it surely was a small group armed with toy water pistols who made headlines by squirting them at guests seated in out of doors cafes.

A mischievous, seemingly innocent act, maybe. But as footage of the incident unfold globally, the firepower of these toy weapons quickly turned obvious. Barcelona’s longstanding tensions over the town’s transformation right into a vacationer playground had erupted into very public hostility.

The shock squirt assault, criticized by some prime tourism officers, was additionally emblematic of a state of affairs ongoing in lots of different locations, from Amsterdam to Bali, the place native residents face being priced out of their very own houses by a worldwide tourism trade that will get greater and extra expansive yearly.

Barcelona, like many of those locations, additionally faces one other drawback. Whereas mass tourism may be placing a pressure on the town, it’s additionally important to its existence, offering jobs and revenue. Tourism is now 14% of the town’s economic system and gives 150,000 jobs, stated Mateu Hernández, director of the Barcelona Tourism Consortium.

It’s a balancing act the town’s tourism officers are solely too conscious of as Barcelona prepares for the arrival of throngs of tourists this summer season. At the same time as measures are enacted geared toward serving to defend native residents, there have been official issues that many vacationers could not really feel welcome.

Hernández, whose Consortium is the town’s tourism promotion board, pointed to “a notion that Barcelona doesn’t need vacationers. We’re nervous about Barcelona’s picture of overtourism,” he advised a gaggle of overseas correspondents in Madrid in January.

Now, authorities are working to alter perceptions earlier than this summer season arrives. Guests will definitely nonetheless come — a newly opened cruise terminal has the potential to herald many hundreds extra vacationers — however will some keep away?

Earlier than the crowds

Tourism wasn’t all the time an issue in Barcelona. For years the capital of Spain’s northeastern Catalonia area welcomed a gradual however sustainable circulate of tourists there to savor the attractive structure and Mediterranean way of life.

Then got here the Barcelona 1992 Summer time Olympics. In its runup, an city renewal upgraded the airport, eliminated railroad tracks and trade situated alongside the Mediterranean and put in seashores. The Video games then supplied a highlight for the type and tradition of the historic metropolis that had opened to the ocean.

By 2004, Barcelona, a metropolis of 1.5 million residents, obtained 4.5 million vacationers who stayed in a single day. The airport quickly added a 3rd runway and a brand new terminal. Ryanair started low-cost flights there in 2010. Extra cruise ship terminals have been constructed, and by 2019, simply earlier than the Covid pandemic, there have been 16.1 million in a single day vacationers, official figures present.

After which the newest backlash. It’s unclear whether or not final 12 months’s protests had a direct affect, however 15.5 million vacationers stayed in a single day in Barcelona in 2024 — 100,000 lower than in 2023, official figures present. Town’s inhabitants had elevated to 1.7 million.

Some vacationers spend solely the day within the metropolis. Amongst them, 1.6 million cruise ship passengers “in transit” in 2024, the Port of Barcelona reported. The bulk come ashore when their ships dock within the morning, tour the town, and return by late afternoon to sail for the following vacation spot, the tourism consortium press workplace stated.

The ensuing crowds, at locations like La Rambla avenue and within the adjoining Gothic quarter, the oldest a part of city, are partly accountable for the ire amongst Barcelona’s residents.

“We really feel fairly invaded,” Joan Albert Riu Fortuny, a lifelong Barcelona resident, advised CNN.

‘There’s a restrict’

One point of interest of crowding, stated Jordi Valls, a Barcelona deputy mayor whose portfolio contains tourism, is the neighborhood across the iconic Sagrada Familia Basilica. It’s dwelling to 50,000 residents, he stated, however in summer season, one other 50,000 vacationers can present up day by day there, simply to take a look at the still-unfinished church.

“We predict vacationer demand is unstoppable,” Valls advised CNN. “Everyone seems to be welcome. However there’s a restrict,” he stated, with out specifying the quantity. “The one risk is to regulate the availability.”

A plan to double the vacationer tax — as much as greater than $16 (15 euros) per vacationer per evening in Barcelona — was unveiled in February by the Catalan regional authorities. If authorized, it could earmark no less than 25% of the income to assist ease a housing scarcity, which is a main grievance amongst residents.

Quick-term vacationer rental flats are broadly blamed as a consider lowering reasonably priced housing in Barcelona. The typical worth of long-term rental flats, the place residents dwell, elevated 68% previously decade, the town’s housing workplace advised CNN.

“With vacationer flats, the proprietor will get far more cash by renting it that approach than in a long-term lease,” stated Riu Fortuny, the Barcelona resident. “There’s not sufficient out there housing.”

In all, Barcelona has 152,000 beds out there nightly for guests, the tourism consortium’s Hernández added, primarily in lodges but in addition together with 60,000 in vacationer flats.

With such a potent trade, the proposed doubling of the vacationer tax “does nothing greater than legitimize the very touristic exercise,” Daniel Pardo, a longtime member of the Meeting of Neighborhoods for Tourism Degrowth, in Barcelona, advised CNN. “It’s an remoted measure that doesn’t change the established order.”

The Meeting helped set up the big tourism protest final July — however not the water pistol a part of it, Pardo stated. He added that there’ll “certainly” be extra protests this 12 months, however that particular plans can be determined later.

‘Big vacationer lure’

On the metropolis’s most-visited websites, there are indicators of change in how Barcelona is receiving the vacationers.

On La Rambla, sensors have been put in final 12 months to measure foot visitors, via cellular phone actions, alongside the 0.8 mile (1.3 kilometer) promenade, stated Xavi Masip, supervisor of Buddies of La Rambla, a 65-year-old neighborhood affiliation to guard and promote the road.

“The sensors give a sign of how and the place individuals are shifting, at what hours, and the areas with some saturation,” Masip advised CNN. “La Rambla could be very full. There are occasions when these of us from Barcelona can really feel bothered” about it.

Some congested areas have already been recognized, like a slim part close to the Plaza de Catalunya, at one finish of La Rambla, Masip stated. The port, on the different finish of the road, has additionally put in some sensors.

“An enormous a part of that is that crowds aren’t managed effectively” on La Rambla, stated Will Gluckin, international communications supervisor for Get Your Information, a Berlin-based platform providing journey experiences in locations all over the world. The agency is a sponsor for the Buddies of La Rambla initiative that put in the sensors.

“We ship clients to La Rambla each day,” stated Gluckin, whose firm has operated in Barcelona for a decade. He advised CNN that “poor-quality vacationer retailers” and lots of fast-food eateries there have made “La Rambla one thing of a large vacationer lure as a substitute of a genuinely good place to go to.”

But it surely’s free, and vacationers hold strolling it, at the same time as avenue work continues this 12 months to widen the central pedestrian portion of La Rambla and to cut back the 2 lanes of auto visitors to only one on all sides of it, Masip stated.

The 2 most-visited websites that cost entry charges in Barcelona have been each designed by modernist architect Antoni Gaudí. Every now sells solely advance on-line tickets. The Sagrada Familia began this in 2020 through the Covid pandemic, and final 12 months had 4.8 million guests, 87% of them from outdoors of Spain, its press workplace stated.

Park Guëll, perched on a hill overlooking the town and the ocean, shifted to advance on-line tickets solely final 12 months and had almost 4.5 million guests. This 12 months the park, with its distinctive Gaudi curvy mosaics, elevated the usual entry price to $19.50 (18 euros), from $10.80 (10 euros). It’s a transfer geared toward managing the crowds, stated deputy mayor Valls.

To make room for extra guests on the road, the town says it has eliminated benches and small gardens round Sagrada Familia, the place a brand new tower, the tallest of all of the church’s spires, is to be accomplished later this 12 months. At Park Guëll, tour bus and taxi stops have been relocated farther from the doorway, to reduce crowd density there.

Over on the port, Barcelona’s seventh cruise ship terminal simply opened in February. It’s a smooth construction completely for ships from MSC Cruises, a Geneva-based international cruise operator. MSC stated it has stopped utilizing three different cruise terminals on the port for its ships.

However the metropolis goals to cut back the seven terminals to only 5, via negotiations, deputy mayor Valls advised CNN. Three current terminals, he stated, have concessions on account of expire in 2029.

MSC’s Madrid press workplace advised CNN its new terminal has a 30-year concession.

“MSC Cruises is dedicated to accountable tourism,” an organization assertion stated, including that it offers prior discover to native authorities about ship arrival and departure occasions, and particulars about passengers who’ll go to varied vacationer websites. “This ensures that our shoppers take pleasure in their holidays whereas serving to Barcelona’s economic system and native jobs.”

In all, about 800 cruise ships arrive yearly on the port and it’s not the one flash level of huge tourism infrastructure in Barcelona. Mayor Jaume Collboni introduced final 12 months that the town would revoke permits in 2028 for the ten,000 licensed vacationer flats, to assist present extra reasonably priced housing.

However Barcelona’s vacationer flats affiliation, Apartur, opposes this, demanding hefty compensation for the homeowners and arguing that it could lead to extra unlicensed vacationer flats.

‘There will probably be extra vacationers’

And there’s speak of increasing Barcelona’s airport, which had a file 55 million passengers in 2024. It’s “at a saturation degree,” stated Hernández, of the tourism consortium. The airport has direct connections to about 200 locations globally, 70 p.c of them in Europe, additionally together with eight locations in america.

The Spanish authorities and Catalan officers are discussing “tips on how to enhance the capability and defend the environment,” the Catalan president’s press workplace advised CNN, including that the airport sits in a river delta with European Union-protected marshlands and chook habitats.

Barcelona’s attraction for vacationers has even grow to be a topic of research in school, stated two American college college students on a semester-abroad program in Madrid. They visited Barcelona for the primary time in February on a school-organized journey and advised CNN that the preparation supplies talked about tourism’s affect on Barcelona.

Sean Thompson, 20, a sociology main from Utica, New York, stated, “I actually did benefit from the metropolis. It teaches us the impact of tourism on Barcelona and the hyper-tourism.”

Andrew Durkin, 21, a finance main from Scranton, Pennsylvania, stated, “I knew, getting in, that there have been attitudes towards vacationers. I anticipated to be handled in a different way.”

Their go to included the Sagrada Familia and La Rambla. They anticipated greater crowds however stated it was a largely wet weekend in February, in off-season.

However the crowds may very well be again for the summer season.

“We’re making an effort to handle, however excessive season is excessive season,” deputy mayor Valls stated. “So, there will probably be extra vacationers.”

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