Mass tourism troubles hit fever pitch in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday as protesters threw items and sprayed travelers with water guns and canned drinks, while shouting “tourists go home.”
The protesters — offended in regards to the city’s long-standing problems with overtourism — used thick police-style tape to dam hotel entrances and sidewalk cafes within the small neighborhood of Barceloneta in a symbolic effort to shut the establishments.
The gang, which numbered some 3,000 people, in line with local media, also marched holding a big banner demanding that city officials “decrease tourists now.”
Videos and images show people attempting to avoid the crowds — some walking away from their tables mid-meal — while others, including restaurant staff, verbally sparred with anti-tourism activists.
The demonstration coincides with Barcelona’s peak summer travel months. In 2023, hotel occupancy rates neared 80% in July and August, as the town of 1.6 million people swelled to accommodate greater than 4 million visitors, in line with the Barcelona City Council.
Record-breaking arrivals
A protester in Barcelona on July 6, 2024.
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But the fragile dance between locals and visitors had spiraled long before that.
Hotels in the town quadrupled from 1990 to 2023 to accommodate a rush of travelers, which surged from 1.7 million to 7.8 million through the same period, in line with the Barcelona City Council. That does not include the hundreds of thousands who travel to the town’s outskirts, too, it notes. Â
The town also buckles under the burden of the Barcelona Cruise Port as day-trippers descend on the town by the 1000’s. The port processed some 2.2 million passengers in 2023, up from 560,000 in 2000, in line with its website.
A lady dining at a restaurant in Barceloneta being confronted by a protester.
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The result’s a city during which many locals can now not afford to live, activists say — most notably due to housing market, where rents have increased 68% previously decade, in line with Barcelona’s mayor, Jaume Collboni.  Â
Collboni announced in June that Airbnb-style short-term house rentals could be banned in the town by 2028. The move would add some 10,000 apartments back into the long-term rental market.
Two tourists on bicycles being stopped in front of an indication against mass tourism in Barcelona on July 6, 2024.
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A report published by Barcelona’s City Council in 2023, titled “Perception of Tourism in Barcelona” shows more residents feel tourism is useful, somewhat than detrimental, to the town. Nonetheless, the gap between these numbers has closed through the years, it showed.
Half of the 1,860 respondents surveyed said they modify where they go in the town due to tourists. “They avoid a widespread area around the town centre (Plaça Catalunya, La Rambla, Gothic Quarter, Raval, Old Town, Waterfront), in addition to the Sagrada FamÃlia area. By way of specific spaces, Park Güell tops the list of those deliberately avoided.”
Even those that recognize the economic contribution of tourism have gotten disillusioned by the sheer variety of travelers in the town, in line with the report.
“Increasingly people consider that Barcelona has reached its tourism capability limit,” it states.
