Fed up with tourists, Barcelona protesters blast them with water guns
Locals marched and delivered a manifesto on tourism’s cost-of-living impact, the latest backlash against a global travel surge since the end of pandemic limits.
The Facts.
Led by the Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turístic, or the Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth, the protesters listed 13 demands in a manifesto published Saturday, including restrictions on tourist accommodations, fewer cruise terminals in the city’s port and an end to tourism advertisements using public money. Local authorities estimated 2,800 people participated in the protests. Daniel Pardo Rivacoba, 48, a member of the organizing group, said as many as 20,000 people from 170 organizations took part in the protests.
Background Barcelona has long been a popular tourist destination. Last year, close to 26 million visited the region, according to official figures, and Spain was the second-most-visited country in the world, according to U.N. Tourism. Barcelona’s population is 1.7 million. Along with Venice, it is where the backlash against overtourism began, said T.C. Chang, a professor of geography at the National University of Singapore who researches urban tourism. “As far as I know, there has been no explicit violence. But [overtourism] was already recognized at least 2-3 years before the pandemic,” he said in an email, noting that residents have also put up “No tourists welcome” signs in neighborhoods. “What has happened in Barcelona will spread to more tourist-crowded places beyond Europe,” he added. The bigger picture Locales in Japan, Indonesia, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands have also taken steps to curb influxes of visitors in the past year.
More From The Washington Post (subscription required):