‘I was terrified. I am not coming back here again,’ said a visitor from the US
Brandishing water pistols, flares, and firecrackers, activists in Barcelona led continent-wide protests on Sunday against “overtourism”.
Red smoke billowed next to the Generator Hotel in the Catalan city as demonstrators shouted “tourists go home”.
Patrick Flomo, who was on holiday from the US with his ten-year-old son, watched inside the hotel as activists blocked the door with tape and scuffled with a couple who tried to return to the hotel.
“I was terrified. I am not coming back here again. Why are they doing this?,” he told The i Paper.
In the first coordinated demonstration in Europe, activists vented their anger over what they see as excessive tourism in cities and holiday resorts, which they claim makes it impossible for locals to find affordable housing and raises living costs.
Protesters marched along Paseo de Gracia, known as a destination for luxury shopping.
Lidia Balague, 38, a social worker, held a sign saying she lives in a flat measuring 23 sq metres but pays €715 (£609) per month.
“It is the fault of mass tourism that we cannot find affordable housing and go to eat in affordable places in the city. Shops are full of souvenir rubbish like Pablo Escobar t-shirts,” she said.
Protests also took place in Granada, Palma and Ibiza. In Portugal, demonstrators hit the streets of Lisbon and in Italy, activists rallied in Venice, Genoa, Palermo, Milan and Naples.
They are joining forces under the umbrella of the SET alliance – Sud d’Europa contra la Turistització, or Southern Europe against Overtourism.
Daniel Pardo Rivacoba, spokesperson for Barcelona’s Neighbourhoods Assembly for Tourism Degrowth, said the protest was not against mass tourism but against how ‘touristification’ had ruined cities like Barcelona.
“Today #15J we take to the streets against touristification like many other territories in Southern Europe. For territories to live in, not for the rich to get even richer at the expense of the land, the people and the planet,” the group said in a social media post.
Before the demonstration, Pardo urged people to bring water pistols – a repeat of the tactic last July when protesters soaked tourists.
More than 25 million tourists visited Barcelona last year, a city with a population of 1.6 million.
A survey conducted by Barcelona last year showed that 31 per cent of residents believe tourism was damaging, the highest figure on record.
In the city graffiti saying ‘Tourists go home’ has become more common and Barcelona’s tourism agency was spray painted with a message about the planned protest.
In reply, the agency said in a letter: “If you hear someone from Barcelona say, ‘Tourists, go home, you should know that most of us don’t think that way.”
It said the city welcomed tourists because they brought diversity but acknowledged the challenges brought by mass tourism. It said the city had limited tourist flats to 10,000 and imposed a tourism tax.
Barcelona, which depends on tourism for 15 per cent of its GDP, announced last year it would shut all short-term lets by 2028. The mayor said at the time rents had risen by 68 per cent in the past 10 years and the cost of buying a house had risen by 38 per cent.
Jaime Rodriguez de Santiago, head of lettings platform Airbnb for Iberia, said last week Barcelona’s restrictions scapegoated short lets, which he said can help redistribute visitor flows to less crowded parts of a city.
In Ibiza, protesters filled the centre of Ibiza Town to protest over how the island’s resources have become over-stretched by mass tourism and locals are forced to live in caravan parks and shanty towns.
The protest in Venice initially appeared low-key, with one organiser saying members would display banners in two locations to denounce the impact of overtourism.
Protesters in Lisbon planned a procession involving an effigy of 12th century Portguese priest St Anthony being “evicted” from his church and carried to the construction site for a luxury hotel.
